Being Chronically Sick Is Having No Effect: If you’re a chronically ill person, read these 9 Thoughts on Not Being So Hard on Yourself. For many people, however, emotional adjustment to disease is notoriously difficult. A long-term medical condition necessitates a variety of adjustments to your everyday routine. To begin with, there are practical considerations such as controlling Prescription side effects, coping with abrupt weariness, and accepting that you may not be able to work or exercise as intensely as before.
Many patients, on the other hand, agree that the emotional parts of their sickness are the hardest to overcome guilt about missing out on activities, frustration that people don’t realize how horrible you’re feeling, and dread about when you’ll feel better again. The most important thing to remember, according to Nancy Shadick, MD, an associate professor of rheumatology at Harvard Medical School, is how much power you have over your disease, even if it looks like you don’t.
Patients have a number of alternatives for both treating their sickness and managing the numerous side effects, she notes. We call this skill “self-efficacy,” or the ability to regulate one’s own illness, the ability to return to normal functioning, be pain-free, and return to work. Patients with a high level of self-efficacy, according to Dr. Shadick, are better able to deal with their disease.
“This is a common experience,” says Kim Gorgens, Ph.D., Clinical Professor and Director of Continuing Education at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology. For someone who feels guilty about how much time and money is spent on their care, this may be tough. You have to remind yourself that this isn’t an isolated incident when you get messages telling you that you’re not important.”
So, how can you develop a feeling of self-efficacy?
During a #CreakyChats Twitter chat, our group recently addressed methods to stop being so hard on yourself. You probably know that one of the many new challenges that come with living with a chronic disease is managing your relationships. During one of your flares, you may discover that people you thought were always there for you aren’t, or that the cheerfulness you adore in your best friend becomes poisonous positivism when directed at your symptoms.
Well-intentioned but poorly informed people frequently make insensitive statements. Certain circumstances may compel a review of someone’s role in your life. Remind yourself that it is your right to put your own health first. It might be difficult to let go of harmful relationships, as vital as it is to put yourself first. This is especially true for someone who has been a significant part of your life for a long time.
31 Chronic Illness Side Effects Nobody Discusses
When you have a chronic illness, your doctor may prepare you for the key physical symptoms, which your friends and family may be familiar with. Many “side effects” go unmentioned. Others may realize you have pain or exhaustion, but not how devastating it is. Bladder/bowel troubles or diminished libido can be hard to discuss. Mental and emotional health, social life, workability, and basic identity are also affected by the disease.
Many of these consequences are personal. Our Mighty community shared chronic illness side effects no one discusses. It’s crucial to put light on the whole reality of having a chronic ailment to enhance awareness and understanding. These problems shouldn’t be faced alone.
The Community Shared:
- “I wish someone had warned me about the weariness.” Some medicine aids my disease. But… I can’t take anything for the bone-deep fatigue.”
- Depression, anxiety, hopelessness, fatigue, despair, rage, frustration, and sadness. It’s like grieving a life you can’t have.
- “People doubting or questioning my ‘invisible ailments’ I wouldn’t choose this and am not making anything up, therefore I shouldn’t have to justify anything!”
- “Intimacy. Autoimmune illness has caused over 30 wounds. We can’t even sleep together. Our marriage suffered.”
- “Between worlds” The’sick’ and ‘regular’ worlds. Too sick to be normal, yet not sick enough to be ‘normal’ When you’re sick, striving to be like everyone else makes you sicker.
- Losing friends because no one understands and you’re weary of explaining. They’re not bad buddies. It’s a challenging notion they don’t get. Losing chronically ill pals because they didn’t understand was worst.
- “Many toilet stops are immediate and abrupt, so you get in the habit of carrying spare undergarments. No one discusses these symptoms.
- “Total self-worthlessness. What happens when you can no longer be “productive”?
- “It’s hard to shower and conduct other essential tasks before work. Bad days, I can only choose one. Some days are impossible. You’re fatigued by day’s end. Exhausted, disgusting, overwhelmed.”
- “I have an invisible sickness and can’t work.” People say sleeping in is great. Nope. It’s about self-worth and combating depression.”
- “How rarely you enjoy nature. There are memes and tips about how nature is helpful for mental health. Chronic illness sufferers rarely leave their homes, and when they do, it’s to go to the doctor or store. We’re too tired to visit parks and trails. “I miss it from my former life.”
- “Guilt when your partner and children have to pick up the slack when you’re sick. My family doesn’t pile on the guilt, but I’m adept at doing it myself. (Valium)
- “Cost! Nobody considers unanticipated costs. Prescriptions and doctor visits aren’t enough. Over-the-counter medications and chiropractors and acupuncturists are recommended by your doctor but not covered by insurance. Repeated ill days or inability to work reduce revenue.
- “[No one discusses] doubt. One minute you’re OK, the next not. The condition’s unpredictability makes planning difficult.
- “Finding a caring, understanding doctor can be frustrating.”
- Because my chronic illness (IBD) is invisible, I hear “you look great!” comments, which are pleasant to hear but don’t account for my body discomfort and exhaustion.
Chronic Illness Side Effects Nobody Discusses
- “Incontinence isn’t discussed. Our unique bodies make chronic illnesses smell like stomachaches. It can be so bad that you don’t want to eat out or must know where the nearest restroom is. I’ve never considered that before.”
- “I only eat salads in restaurants. At home, I can cook various options, but in a restaurant, I can’t regulate my diet. I hate being limited to salads while I’m out.
- “Some days, things I used to perform easily are hard. I never rested after a shower when I was healthy. Simple things that healthy people take for granted can drain energy.
- “Dating is harder after I got sick, especially on Tinder. Guys are often uneasy when they learn the girl they’re talking to is sick.
- No one talks about your lack of power and choices. I wanted a career and to move, but I couldn’t work full-time again to fund it.
- Your sense of reality might be impacted by TV/Netflix shows and the internet.
- “A diagnosis is not the solution.” Chronic sickness doesn’t fit the media’s single arc of acceptance/overcoming. With each new issue or lost milestone, mourning cycles.
- “Memories of life before being (disablingly) ill are fading and being replaced by the obtrusive and overwhelming reality that this is what it will be from now on.”
- “You have to buy new clothes more often because you keep gaining or losing weight (or both), or this fabric makes your skin react, or chest tightness makes you need looser fitting tops, or certain clothing types/cuts leave lines/imprints all over your skin, or you can’t walk in heels like you used to.”
- “How not only you (the individual with chronic illness) but also the caregivers need assistance, and it’s just as vital.”
- “Feeling left behind, sick while all your peer’s graduate/get jobs/move away/get married while you have to accept that you can’t do those things right now, that everything you thought you’d do in your 20s is unlikely to happen, if at all.”
- Everyone says, “Your neck will hurt” or “You’ll be exhausted.” No one cites earlobe, toe, and lip pain.
- “How your brain turns 360. You’re easily upset, unhappy, worried, and impatient. Once easy tasks are suddenly difficult. No one understands me unless they’ve been there.”
- “TV and movies have stigmatized chronic illness. Trying to explain the genuine illness.”
- “You rarely get one diagnosis and treatment. If anything goes wrong with your body, other things often go wrong, too, and they all need to be managed, which can be hard.
