Living With Chronic Illness: The Things You Can Do

Coping with chronic illness happens gradually. A person needs time to understand, accept and adapt to their new reality but, fear not, you’re not the only one on a challenging path – peer support is always available to prop your efforts and demonstrate that obstacles lose strength when you stop facing them alone.

When illness strikes your state of mind goes 180 degrees; a multitude of negative emotions and alien perceptions start chipping away at your happiness. Though it might seem counterintuitive (since concrete, physical symptoms are involved) maintaining a daily positive outlook on your life as a whole is both significant and extremely important.

There’s an extended body of research on how happiness influences life quality and duration and the results constantly add proof that supports this premise. So, if you need to pick your battles (to pace your efforts on the long run), begin with this one: ‘fight’ for your laughter and your smiles first.

Ground Zero

It happened – you’ve been diagnosed with a lifelong, incurable but manageable disease like diabetes, asthma, heart disease or some other chronic condition. What now?

Your attention will initially focus on grasping all the changes that need to happen in order to manage the condition. As soon as you get familiar with the repetitive doctor’s appointments, specific medication, dietary requirements, and daily exercise routines, you become very aware of how different your (new) life is – this may come as a shock. The blueprint of your ideal life and what it actually looks (and feels) like post-diagnosis are notably mismatched.

The key to not getting stuck at this moment and being able to cope with all the changes, is allowing yourself time to grieve. Reacting emotionally to the loss (of health) you’ve experienced is only natural and necessary if you want to live a happy, balanced life under the circumstances. And so is the realization that it is not ‘all over’, your life simply took another direction.

You can and will go on, doing many of the things you did before only in a more self-aware manner. And, just like before, you’ll have good days and bad days, your mood will swing for a myriad of reasons, and small things will still impress you on occasions – the diagnosis does not change these patterns. Think of this as a new chapter in your life; some things are bound to be different but it’s within your power to adjust your lifestyle as you go and keep your happy vibe in tune.

Here are three things that you can easily do:

1. Find A support group

You might feel alone in your struggles but there are many people out there who are in your exact shoes. They did, however, have extra time to experiment and discover ways to cope with the changes in their lives and can offer advice to help you ease into your current situation. Look for an illness support group that includes patients and professionals as well and attend the meetings as often as possible – that’s one of the most inspired things you can do to regain (and maintain) your well-being.

2. Be on the lookout for depression

More than a third of people with chronic diseases are affected by heavy, dark moods. Depression can seriously hinder your health maintaining efforts, such as taking critical medication or seeing your physician when needed. Beware of any depression signs and get ahead of the problem before it too grows to chronic levels. If you think you’re depressed or believe you are heading that way, talk to your caretaker(s) and seek the most appropriate treatment. You should also be proactive about it, meaning that you can take steps right away to boost your confidence, keep the morale high, and be in touch with your inner self. Anything from cutting out toxic people and instead, spending time with those that motivate you, to mastering NLP techniques will help you keep your head high.

3. Turn this into an opportunity

Chances are you knew, even before you were diagnosed with a life-changing condition, that you needed to work on improving your diet and exercise. Maybe you already tried and made little progress on your own. Well, now you have an entire team to support and motivate you in the pursuit of a better life – things could turn around faster than you expected.

You can deal with this type of health issue day to day, ignoring the big picture and improvising responses to its sometimes unpredicted symptoms and problems. Or, you can put both hands on the wheel and do your best to manage the disease instead of letting it dictate your reality – the choice is definitely yours.

If you enjoyed this article then please go ahead and share it with your friends and family. After all, sharing is caring.

Main image credit: pexels.com