Is this still common? One of my aunts has Cancer and a lot of my close relatives didn’t even know which type of Cancer, which stage she was at or other basic things that I’d assumed they’d have asked.. Even the doctors in the family seem reluctant to discuss it..
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
Not at all.
An uncle of mine recently died of cancer (may ALLAH (SWT) grant him a place in Jannat ul Firdaus) and they discussed every development and detail with everyone of the family. They live in a pind in Pakistan. No stigma whatsoever.
This is only one example.
May ALLAH TA’ALAH give shifa to your aunt and may she recover from this horrible disease. :k:
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
I would imagine there is, for breast/uterine cancers...
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
There is stigma for some diseases including cancers and some infectious diseases mainly because of lack of awareness and the fear that the disease is contagious and families can try to hide things because of this.
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
There is stigma for some diseases including cancers and some infectious diseases mainly because of lack of awareness and the fear that the disease is contagious and families can try to hide things because of this.
An example of the stigma :
My khala was rejected by one family as they found out that she had asthma. This was about 15 years ago. But now she is well and married, and has mashaAllah 4 kids, and never any asthma problems.
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
I know there is a stigma with really stupid things. ie: when I went to Pakistan my mom made be walk around without glasses when I was younger a lot because a lot of my relatives were like "haw hai, larki tho aandi hai". Now that 1/2 my cousins have glasses (thanks to the advent of technology and them using computers all day errryday) no one cares.
I think the hesitancy to discuss illness has somethign to do with general lack of knowledge. My uncle has CHF but he's CLUELESS. I looked at his med records when I went because he was trying to explain what was happening and clearly couldn't. We have a neighbor in Pak that has breast CA. She was so uninformed bout the whole thing that she gave a very wishy-washy explanation for prognosis/treatment/etc. She just didn't know.
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
A few pakistani families did use to over react when they hear that someone has asthma or wears glasses but i do think thats all in the past. As time has passed even those back home have realised that something like loosing your sight or getting asthma can happen at any age.
I remember my dads brother got refused a rishta because he had asthma.
But then there are those who don't mention that their daughter/son has any problems until after marriage
Re: Stigma associated with illness..
I think more than actual stigma, it's embarrassment on the part of the person suffering from the disease. A lady we knew was too embarrassed to tell her family (she had 2 sons, no daughter or close female relative) that her breast had changed in shape. Turned out to be cancer, but by the time they found out it was too late. Can't describe what the family went through when they realized how easily curable her condition could have been if only she had told them.