When you are “sick,” people come up and ask how you are. The stereotyped answer — if you want reassure them — is “fine.” With dementia and other major diseases, such a response is misleading and can lead to perceptions that the disease is less than your family is saying or that you are getting better or that it’s no big deal to have you untreatable, incurable, scary, and isolating disease.

I’ve learned that there are other things you can say to reassure people without over- or under-stating the problem and at the same time complimenting your family, your doctors, and other factors. I find one response especially effective. Click on the mind map to see my answer and the context and effects from using it.