What Is Chronic Illness? | chronic-illnesses

What Is A Chronic Illness?

Having a long-term, or chronic, illness can disrupt your life in many ways. You may often be tired and in pain. Your illness might affect your appearance or your physical abilities and independence. You may not be able to work, causing financial problems. For children, chronic illnesses can be frightening, because they may not understand why this is happening to them.

These changes can cause stress, anxiety and anger. If they do, it is important to seek help. A trained counselor can help you develop strategies to regain a feeling of control. Support groups might help, too. You will find that you are not alone, and you may learn some new tips on how to cope.

Characteristics of a Chronic Illness

Chronic illnesses are mostly characterised by:

Complex causes
Many risk factors
Long latency periods (time between exposure to the illness and feeling its effects)
A long illness
Functional impairment or disability.

Most chronic illnesses do not fix themselves and are generally not cured completely. Some can be immediately life-threatening, such as heart attack and stroke. Others linger over time and need intensive management, such as diabetes. Most chronic illnesses persist throughout a person’s life, but are not always the cause of death, such as arthritis.

Common stresses of chronic illness

Chronic or long-term illness and its treatment poses special problems. You need to learn how to:

Live with the physical effects of the illness
Deal with the treatments
Make sure there is clear communication with doctors
Maintain emotional balance to cope with negative feelings
Maintain confidence and a positive self-image.

Additional demands of chronic illness

As well as needing to find ways to deal with the stress involved with chronic illness, you also need to:

Understand the condition
Know about the treatment and therapy
Maintain trust and confidence in the doctors, especially when recovery isn’t possible
Know how to control the symptoms
Maintain social relationships when faced
with an uncertain medical future or when symptoms arise
Avoid social isolation.

Ways to cope with chronic illness

There is a range of ways to deal with the stress of chronic illness. These include:
Finding information – this can help if you feel helpless or out of control
Emotional support from others – particularly family and friends, this can be a source of great help
Setting concrete, short-term goals – to restore certainty, power and control
Thinking about possible outcomes – and discussing them with the doctor can help you to face them before they become a reality.

Type of help available for chronic illness

Dealing with the stresses of chronic illness can be demanding and it puts extra pressure on you. It is important you speak to your doctor or healthcare provider about your feelings and how effectively you think you are coping with the illness and its treatment.

Let's face it. . . chronic illness can have its humorous moments if we look for them.

10 THINGS TO SAY TO A PERSON WITH

AN CHRONIC ILLNESS.

1. How are you doing today?

2. Is there anything Ican do to make things easier.

3. I am here for you, whatever you need.

4. It must be bery difficult to have a disease where you feel so awful on the inside but it doesn't show on the outside.

5. I am so sorry that you are going through this.

6. I wish I could take away your pain.

7. I hope you are feeling better soon.

8. I will keep you in my thoughts & prayers.

9. I may not completely understand your diease or what you are going through, but I would like to.

10. I am so sorry I judged you before understanding your disease.

10. THINGS NOT TO SAY TO A PERSON WITH WITH A CHRONIC ILLNESS.

1. But you look so good!

2. Just pray harder.

3. You're so lucky to get to stay in bed all day.

4. If you just got our of the house more often.

5. It's all in your head.

6. No pain...no gain!

7. Your illness is caused by stress

8. You just want attention.

9. Atop being lazy and get a job.

10. You can't be in that much pain.

You know you have a chronic illness when...

You understand all the medical terminology discussed on the T.V. show Grey's Anatomy.
When you hear the term "Club Med" you automatically think of the hospital.
You ask your child to open the "child-proof" bottles of medicine because your hands are too sore.
Your medical records have to be transported on a cart.
To entertain people at parties you recite the side effects of medications as if you are the voice over on a commercial.
Your favorite Oprah program is when Dr. Oz is on.
To get rid of boredom on road trips, your whole family can go through the alphabet and name a drug that starts with each letter of the alphabet.
When you're unable to sleep because of pain, you watch "The Jerry Springer Show" and feel like you actually have a life.
Your spelling has improved dramatically, especially on words like "fibromyalgia" and "osteoporosis."
Or you've been "Around the World in Thirty Minutes" with CNN's Headline News 57 times in one sitting.
You have a panic attack in public and say, "Praise God this is only the fourth one today!"
You're invited to the wedding of the gal who works at the hospital lab.
You're child thinks watching you do injections of medication is "cool."
You have a flashback and don't know what happened and can honestly say, "I don't know where I was or what I was doing but I'll makesomething up if you'd like."

COPING With A Chronic illness

What Is A Chronic Illness?

Characteristics of a Chronic Illness

Common stresses of chronic illness

Additional demands of chronic illness

Ways to cope with chronic illness

Type of help available for chronic illness

Let's face it. . . chronic illness can have its humorous moments if we look for them.

10 THINGS TO SAY TO A PERSON WITH

AN CHRONIC ILLNESS.

1. How are you doing today?

2. Is there anything Ican do to make things easier.

3. I am here for you, whatever you need.

4. It must be bery difficult to have a disease where you feel so awful on the inside but it doesn't show on the outside.

5. I am so sorry that you are going through this.

6. I wish I could take away your pain.

7. I hope you are feeling better soon.

8. I will keep you in my thoughts & prayers.

9. I may not completely understand your diease or what you are going through, but I would like to.

10. I am so sorry I judged you before understanding your disease.

10. THINGS NOT TO SAY TO A PERSON WITH WITH A CHRONIC ILLNESS.

You know you have a chronic illness when...

You understand all the medical terminology discussed on the T.V. show Grey's Anatomy.

When you hear the term "Club Med" you automatically think of the hospital.

You ask your child to open the "child-proof" bottles of medicine because your hands are too sore.

Your medical records have to be transported on a cart.

To entertain people at parties you recite the side effects of medications as if you are the voice over on a commercial.

Your favorite Oprah program is when Dr. Oz is on.

To get rid of boredom on road trips, your whole family can go through the alphabet and name a drug that starts with each letter of the alphabet.

When you're unable to sleep because of pain, you watch "The Jerry Springer Show" and feel like you actually have a life.

Your spelling has improved dramatically, especially on words like "fibromyalgia" and "osteoporosis."

Or you've been "Around the World in Thirty Minutes" with CNN's Headline News 57 times in one sitting.

You have a panic attack in public and say, "Praise God this is only the fourth one today!"

You're invited to the wedding of the gal who works at the hospital lab.

You're child thinks watching you do injections of medication is "cool."

You have a flashback and don't know what happened and can honestly say, "I don't know where I was or what I was doing but I'll makesomething up if you'd like."

96% of chronic illness is invisible...

A lot of people do understand....

We just don't know who!