I was wondering this as well. I couldn't find the thesis and for a moment I wondered if this was posted as an example of an AI-generated post.
When the first thing someone tells me upon meeting me is that they have a medical condition, I think “uh oh, heeeere we go.” First of all, it’s none of my business. Second, why do you want me to know this? What am I supposed to do with that information? Is this what we are going to be talking about? And if not, why the need to share this fact? Such a confusing way to start out a conversation or blog.
It’s like saying, “First of all, I really like pancakes. Now here’s my post about programming in Python.”
One way to minimize the amount of BS like that that you put up with is by just stating up front, "I have this condition." If the other person listens and responds positively, then you can probably find common ground. If instead they think, "Uh oh, heeeeere we go," you know to dismiss them.
You can't really blame humans for being curious when you stoke but deliberately choose not to satisfy their curiosity.
I mean, HN specifically wants you to post "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity". I don't know about others, but my intellectual curiosity certainly isn't gratified when someone leads with "I have a condition" but then gets all squirrelly about what it is.
If you tell people what your condition is and they don't take it seriously, that's their problem. If you don't tell what it is, it might be "a mild fear of puppets" for all I know. Unfortunately there are people that make up medical conditions for themselves, so you can't really expect everyone to just automatically accept "I have this condition" as an excuse for any behavior. For example, I've taught a number of students that made up conditions for themselves right at the moment their homework was due.
If I tell people I get migraines pretty much all of the time they think I get bad headaches, not that I can't see, lose my ability to talk, have my arm go numb and instead it feels like my jaw is stuck in a vise, I can't look at sunlight and every noise is painful. People don't want to hear about the ways someone they know is silently suffering.
Again, if you are open about the condition, and someone responds to that knowledge poorly, that is their problem. Ignore those people. But if you keep the nature of the condition under wraps, that might make it "easier" to deal with in the short term at the cost of others being able to move forward with you at all.