by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: May 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 17, 2007

Both myself and my husband suffer from chronic illness, and we both have different strategies for coping with it, although personally, I believe that mine work better for me.

A CHRONIC ILLNESS

People misunderstand the nature of chronic illness. They think it means serious illness, and although a chronic illness can be serious, what it means literally speaking is an illness that lasts and is ongoing.

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

Learning how to deal with chronic illness is actually easier than we are lead to believe. If you find that you cannot walk properly, like me, you tend to find adaptations that work for you. In my case, I find that I can walk with help, though I have a terribly independent nature and won't accept help from others. Many people feel this way and respecting that they do not want human help goes a long way to learning to live with those that are chronically ill, who fall into two categories:

1.Those who need support, help and advice.
2.Those that stubbornly overcome the problems themselves.

THE ILLNESS

As you get older and illness strikes, I have learned that the best way of coping psychologically for me is to understand the nature of the illness. For example, I know now why I have arthritis. I know why I have acid burn in my throat. I know why I cannot walk properly. Understanding the illness helps the independent person so well because when you learn what to expect, you also learn what is normal and what is exceptional. For example, by keeping a chart in the form of scribbles about the bad heartburn, I learned to recognize when it happened and what was provoking it. In doing this, psychologically I was helping myself enormously, because when heartburn hits, it felt like a heart attack coming on. Learning about illnesses and what limits you must respect, you can help yourself enormously to cope with any kind of illness.

My mobility is limited, though on good days I can achieve more. Some days, I get up and cannot even get across the room, although by learning about my capabilities, the treatments I can use for illnesses, the exercises that help and those that harm I can make the problem easier to handle psychologically. There are exercises I am safe doing. By researching your illness and learning what you can do to help your situation, you are taking control of your body, and it is this control that makes the psychological part of illness strong.

COMPARISONS

If you were to compare the way I deal with illness and the way in which my husband does, both are different

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>