Well in my experience I lost almost all of my friends after getting sick. It's almost like they felt it was contagious or somthing. Or like you said they just don't know what to say.
But dating has been hard. As a bisexual I found guys were not understanding at all and I didn't know when or how to break to them that I had a disease. And Everytime I did they immediately looked at me as defective. Now my current girlfriend who lives with me which makes it even harder because she has to go through it all with me, I have a hard time with because she is there for me in presence but lacking compassion and love that I need to be shown especially recently. I was just in the hospital for two weeks. I tell her how I feel but she doesn't see it. She thinks she's doing enough by getting me food if I need it. Etc. but the emotional support is not there if that makes sense. Do you know what I mean? Or am I being silly?