I don’t get to say how other people decide to refer to themselves. How someone defines their relationship to their disease or to themselves is none of my business. I don’t get to make decisions about language on behalf of anyone.

I do, however, get to decide how I refer to myself and to living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). I do get to be intentional about the words I use in my writing to describe these illnesses and how I see them in the context of the broader world. I do make decisions about the phrasing I choose to use in my work to create educational material for people living with digestive disease.