6 Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health When You Live with a Chronic Illness
Living with a chronic illness can be debilitating; both physically and mentally. If you live with a chronic illness, it’s most likely that you’ll spend your energy managing the physical aspects of your condition which can make it challenging to do things you enjoy.
You’ll often feel like the illness robs you of your sense of hope for the future and you’ll ask questions like ‘Where has the old me gone?”, “What could I have achieved if I wasn’t sick?” and “How can I go on feeling so exhausted and in pain”.
The toll of having a chronic illness can affect your ability to cope with psychological and emotional stress and this puts additional pressure on your mental health. If you live with a chronic condition and have experienced symptoms of a mental health condition, you’re not alone. In this post, I’m going to outline common chronic illness that cause people to suffer from depression and anxiety, list some of the signs you may experience and then offer some tips that helped me, and many others, get through those feelings.
Mental Health and Chronic Illness
Living with a chronic condition often comes with a significant emotional toll. Mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety are one of the most common complications of chronic illness. It is not uncommon to experience the feelings of sadness, fear, defeat, or anger, especially right after a diagnosis or during a flare-up.
Those who live with chronic conditions are at a higher risk for developing a mental health condition. At the same time, mental health symptoms put added stress on your body, creating increased inflammation and often resulting in worsening of symptoms or flare-ups.
Taking care of your mental well-being is an important aspect of caring for your physical health.
Mental Health conditions are common among people who have chronic illnesses such as:
Alzheimer's disease
Autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis
Cancer
Coronary heart disease
Diabetes
Epilepsy
HIV/AIDS
Hypothyroidism
Multiple sclerosis
Parkinson's disease
Stroke
Common symptoms of depression in those with chronic illnesses include:
physical pain of the illness
the grieving process of losses associated with the illness, the fear of "what it is"
a sense of hopelessness that life will never get better.
Persistent emotions of stress, grief, rage, fear and anxiety
Loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities.
Weight loss or weight gain.
Sleep disturbances (sleeping too much or not able to sleep).
Problems with concentration.
Apathy (lack of feeling or emotion).
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
Fatigue or loss of energy.
Thoughts of death or suicide.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), people with chronic health conditions have a higher risk of depression, and they tend to have more severe symptoms.They may have more difficulty adapting to their medical condition, and may have higher medical costs than those who do not have both depression and a medical illness. Symptoms of depression may continue even as a person’s physical health improves.
6 Tips on Ways to Cope
Working around a chronic illness is a challenge. And it’s quite common (and normal) to feel fear and anxiety as you try to make sense of your diagnosis. But you’re not alone, as you try to formulate and plan a new way of living, it’s important to understand that you are worthy and capable. This is a time of healing - and you must surround yourself with those things and people that make you feel good.
Here are 6 tips for navigating the emotional impact of living with a chronic condition below.
1. Recognise and manage your emotions through self care
Having a chronic illness can disrupt your life and plans, which can ultimately evoke a wide range of emotions such as stress, anxiety, anger, fear and rage. To help alleviate these emotions you can experiment with different strategies and techniques and incorporate them into your daily (or weekly) routine.
Here are some ideas:
Exercising- eg. Getting in nature: going forward walks, putting your bare feet on the ground, smelling the flowers
Attending a yoga class, stretching class or mindfulness meditation class
Listening to music which brings you joy and happiness
Deep breathing
Journaling
Cooking healthy meals
Reading that book you have always wanted read but never found the time
Surrounding yourself and spending quality time with positive people: laughing and feeling uplifted
Doing what makes you happy: finding and living your purpose
It may help to schedule time in your calendar for regular breaks and self-care.
2. Know that anything you are feeling is valid
You should never feel guilty about your feelings. You’re entitled to all feelings and grief. We all go through several stages of grief after diagnosis and these feelings can reoccur throughout your illness,
Talking about your mental health can also be challenging or uncomfortable. Finding a community of people who understand exactly what you’re going through can help. Reaching out to a hotline that offers phone counselling or going to therapy can and talking with a licensed professional can help you identify and acknowledge how and what you are feeling and work out ways to help cope with your emotions. Therapy also involves:
Focusing on the behaviors, emotions and ideas that contribute to your mental struggles/conditions.
Understanding and identifying how your health condition has contributed to your mental struggles/conditions.
Regain a sense of control and pleasure in life.
Services that offer support:
3. Prioritise your mental health during flares
Pain and fatigue can have a huge impact on your mood. Having flare ups can bring on worsening feelings of depression and anxiety.
Some extra steps to help your mental health for when you flare up can include:
Journaling
Speaking to your therapist/health care professional
Speaking extra kind to yourself to validate yourself and understand that you are strong and resilient
Reminding yourself that your current flare-up won’t last forever and that it will pass
4. Living in the moment & focusing on the present
It’s easy to fall into the hole of focusing on your future and getting anxious about what it holds when you’re diagnosed with a chronic condition. The future can feel like a big question mark and can cause distress and confusion as to where to go, or what to do.
Focusing on the present and what you’re doing in the now, helps you live in the moment. This can also be referred to as mindfulness. According to Jay Dixit, senior editor of Psychology Today, living for the moment by practicing mindfulness reduces stress, boosts your immune system, lowers blood pressure, and has other beneficial physical and mental effects. Dixit adds that mindful people are more secure, have higher self-esteem and are happier.
Making adjustments to live the best life you can at any moment, helps you push forward and stay grounded.
5. Be extra kind to yourself (especially during a flare-up)
Flare ups and pain can really mess with your mental health and put you through mental gymnastics. You can start to think, ‘What if this is the time it doesn’t get better?’, ‘What if this is the flare that stays for good?’. What’s most difficult about flares is that you never know how long they’re going to last, which can cause physical and mental exhaustion.
When going through a flare, or if you’re feeling down about your chronic condition, make sure to be extra kind to yourself. Though sometimes that feels hard, it’s important to let your experience be what it is and remember that you’re doing the best that you can. Know that there will be ups and downs, don’t judge how you’re dealing with it and seek out help from either your health professional, your family or friends or someone who understands what you are going through.
A way to practice being extra kind to yourself is by practicing gratitude for your body- even if it’s just breathing. Keep a gratitude journal for when things go right and try to notice what your body is doing well — even if it’s just waking up and moving. Whenever you catch yourself criticizing my body, try and re-think that criticism and replace it with gratitude that your body is working hard to fight illness.
6. Learn to recognise patterns and changing what you can
When you suffer from a flare up or worsening of your condition, it’s easy to panic and this can bring on sudden anxiety. Taking the approach of being curious as to what may have contributed to your current state may help you discover new ways to look after yourself when the physical experience subsides. Depending on your illness, this can include identifying that you feel better when you commit to regular exercise and gently manage activity levels, or identifying that certain foods contributed to your flare up (visiting a nutritionist may help you identify foods that increase inflammation in your body) or your flare-up came along a short time after an emotionally stressful event. Once you’ve identified potential triggers and journalled them you can then look to incorporate a new lifestyle strategy. You can log your symptoms, activities and reactions and see if they new strategy improves your outcomes.
Dealing with a chronic condition can often be scary and harrowing, but remember, you’re not alone.
