My friend won't tell anyone he has cancer.
I have a dear friend who has known he has had a form of cancer for a few years now and he refuses any treatment and has never told anyone ever about it (not even his family). I stumbled upon some of his letters/records and I've talked to him about it. I'm not too sure on the exact details of what he's suffering from but it's a very very weak form of cancer that's killing him but very slowly over the years. He's yet to experience any real physical damage so that's why nobody knows. He's a very hard person to grasp a knowledge of, what i mean is that everybody thinks they know him but obviously don't.
I asked him why he's never told anyone and he said he's never really found anyone in his life that he is similar enough and shares the same views as him to want to tell anyone. He loves his family but says he's very different from them all. Before i forget to say he's just about to turn 18 too which obviously is such a young age.
He has anger issues with most of the people around him as he tends not to care about their what he considers issues about everyday petty things which leads people to get the wrong perspective of him as the truth is he is caring and loving.
He truly and deeply cares about world issues and people he says are less fortunate than him. He's loved one girl before and it came to end which had a hard knock on him and is partly the reason i think he's the way he is.
He is quite popular but he told me he feels like he has no real friends that he can depend on since he's been let down time after time but that's not to say he makes that assumption about everyone. He tries he's hardest at things he cares about. He doesn't seem like he's in denial about his condition. He's very much aware that year by year he's closer to dying. He keeps everything bottled up to himself and nobody really See's how much love he has to give because he sometimes lashes out and is very outspoken about people that he thinks are pretentious and selfish. After i talked to him about how i found out. He spoke very calmly, got a tiny little bit upset but then again i felt he was keeping it in. He asked me to do the same and never tell anyone about it and part of me wants to do what he says since i have so much respect for him.
So what I'm asking is normal is that
Am i normal for wanting to keep his secret?
Is he normal for the way he acts and keeping his condition a secret?
The part I'll never understand is why he refuses treatment? Is that normal for a person with his kind of characteristics?