Daughter Found Out She Has A Serious Hereditary Illness, But When She Learned Her Parents Hid It For Years, She Called Them Selfish And Went Low Contact » TwistedSifter

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Finding out you’ve inherited a life-changing illness is devastating enough, but realizing the people who should have warned you chose to stay silent cuts even deeper.

So, what would you do if your parents knowingly hid a hereditary disease that not only put your own life at risk but also your child’s?

Would you let them keep their secret to avoid tearing the family apart? Or would you inform the other members of your family?

In the following story, one daughter faces this exact decision and feels everyone has the right to know.

Here’s what happened.

I (28F) recently found out I have a serious hereditary illness that’s going to mess up my life, and I am so mad I can barely type this out.

It’s a degenerative illness, no cure, nothing. My body’s just gonna slowly get worse.

And the kicker? My parents have known this could happen my whole life and never said a word.

This illness runs in my family.

A lot of her family members have the same illness.

My dad’s mom had it. His sister—my aunt—died from it a few years ago.

I was living overseas when she passed, and my parents told me it was cancer. Cancer. They lied right to my face.

It wasn’t until I got diagnosed that they finally came clean and admitted she had the same illness I do.

When I confronted them, my dad wouldn’t even give me a straight answer. I asked if he had it too, and he dodged every single question, acting like I was overreacting.

Here’s where things took a turn for the worse.

My mom, on the other hand, tried to justify it by saying they didn’t want me “living in fear.”

Are you kidding me? I could have been prepared! Instead, they chose to let me walk into this blind.

And here’s where it gets worse—I have a 2-year-old son. My child might have this, and they never told me I was at risk. I could’ve had him tested, made informed decisions, anything.

But no, they took that from me, and now I live in constant fear for him, too.

Then my mom had the nerve to ask me if I would rather not have been born than deal with this.

Can you believe that? She turned it around on me, like I’m the monster for even thinking it.

Here’s how she responded.

And you know what?

Yes, I said it. Yes, I would rather not have been born than deal with this disease.

They made a selfish choice, and now I’m paying for it. They knew the risks and did it anyway, for themselves. They wanted kids, and now I’m stuck with this.

I called them selfish, and I meant every word.

Now, they want her to stay quiet, but she can’t do that.

Now, they’re begging me not to tell my younger siblings. They don’t know about this yet, haven’t been tested, and my parents want to keep it that way.

They’re hoping they’ll get lucky, but I’m not going to lie to them. I refuse to let them be blindsided like I was. They deserve to know the truth.

I’ve gone low-contact with my parents. I can’t stand to even think about them right now.

The guilt trips won’t stop.

My mom keeps trying to guilt-trip me, saying they were “just trying to protect me.”

Protect me from what? The truth? No, they weren’t protecting me. They were protecting themselves from the guilt of knowing they passed this on, and now they want me to protect them, too.

But I won’t. I love my son and my siblings too much to lie to them.

AITA?

Wow! It’s easy to see both sides of this, but the parents should’ve seen it coming.

Let’s see what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about this situation.

This person’s family also deals with a hereditary disease.

For this person, the parents took away all of her choices.

This reader thinks it’s probably Huntington’s Disease.

Here’s someone who tells her to do it.

For this reader, what the parents did is abuse.

She should tell them.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.