Scott McCormack, who lives in California, was diagnosed in 2016. He shares the anxious reactions he gets when he reveals his myasthenia gravis diagnosis, and how he responds.

When somebody asks what’s wrong and I tell them, “myasthenia gravis,” the overwhelming response is, “What?”

They’ve never heard of it before. And neither had I before I contracted it.

I would say the strangest or most interesting response was a few people wanted to know if it was contagious. As they were asking that, they took a step backward. But then I assured them that, “No, it’s not contagious. It’s just something my body’s doing to me. It won’t do it to anybody else.”