During my recent teaching experiences, I’ve intentionally decided not to disclose my personal health issues. I strongly feel that disclosure of my chronic illnesses is not relevant when I am delivering a lecture to my psychology students. Believe me, there have been situations where I’ve been very tempted to blurt out that I have MS, especially when my speech has slurred.
Last semester, I taught Abnormal Psychology. Despite my significant history of depression, I never disclosed my personal battles with mental illness. The overwhelming majority of the time, I don’t inform patients about my personal medical conditions. Very rarely, I have chosen to reveal my health challenges when it appeared to be clinically beneficial to do so.
