Plain Sailing On Your Chronic Illness Journey

Contributed Post, January 17, 2018

When you are diagnosed with a chronic illness, you might start to think that your life as you know it is over. You could suffer from constant pain, which might make it difficult to carry out everyday tasks, and you might find that your mobility is hindered as a result. Not only will your physical health start to become worse, though, but this chronic diagnosis could have an impact on your mental health as well. Many people find it hard to cope with such a long-term diagnosis, especially if there is no treatment or medication that will fully restore them to full health.

There’s no denying that starting your new journey through life with a chronic illness will mark a major changing point in your life. You just need to make sure that this changing point doesn’t see your life worsen and your mental health decline. To ensure that this journey is as plain sailing as possible, you should use these really useful tips.

Don’t Blame Yourself

When you find out that you are suffering from a chronic disease or health condition, you might feel like you only have yourself to blame. However, this really isn’t the case. It’s perfectly fine to feel a bit upset about your diagnoses for a few days to start off with, but you shouldn’t take it out on yourself. You need to remember that we all struggle with our health at one point or another in our lives, and there will be lots of people out there who are in a lot worse health than you. So, don’t take this health condition out on yourself or else it will only make it a lot more difficult for you to cope with. Not only that, though, but it will make your mental health issues a lot worse as well.

Get A Support Network

You will need to have a strong support network around you when you are ill. This will include all of the doctors and nurses who care for you and help you with your treatment, but it should also include your relatives and friends who you are able to ask for help whenever you need it. There’s no getting around the fact that some aspects of everyday life will be difficult for you to cope with once you develop a chronic health condition, and these are the things that your support network will need to help you with. So, as soon as you are given your diagnosis, you should start to figure out who will work in your network and how they might be able to come to your help when needed. Remember that you should never be embarrassed or ashamed to ask for help whenever you need it – it’s much better to ask than to struggle along!

Figure Out Finances

Once you have a chronic illness diagnosis, it will probably affect your working life. In fact, your symptoms of your illness might have made you give up work before you even got a proper diagnosis. But whenever you give up work, you will need to figure out how you are going to manage financially. Ideally, you should have saved up an emergency fund that you can dip into whenever you need some extra cash, but it’s also important that you have some more long-term options. One of the best things you can do is to get a good health insurance policy. If you take a look at this Medigap description, you will see that it will pay out for many things that a normal health insurance policy wouldn’t usually cover. So, when you are looking for insurance, make sure you find one that is as complete as possible and will cover any chronic illnesses. It’s also a good idea to do some research into any benefits that you might be eligible for as well. There are lots of disability benefits that people who are unable to work due to ill health are allowed to claim from the government. If you speak to the health professionals who you regularly see, they will be able to let you know the kinds of things that you might be able to apply for.

Practice Self-Care

It’s important that you try and look after yourself as much as possible when you suffer from a chronic illness. Sure, that means you should take all of your meds to try and alleviate all of your symptoms, but it also means that you should take the time to look after your mental health and overall well being. The best way to do this is to practice plenty of self-care. The whole basis of self-care is to take care of yourself. So, make sure you have plenty of chance to chill out and relax – pushing yourself to do too much stuff will only stress you out. Getting a good night’s sleep is also critical in self-care, and all of that sleep will also help your condition. To look after your mental health, you might want to start going to therapy sessions and practicing thought techniques like mindfulness.

Keep Up With Appointments

Once you are diagnosed with a chronic health condition, you will have to attend regular appointments with a doctor and other health professionals. It is really important that you keep up with these and try not to miss any. After all, these are all for your own benefit and will help you live with your symptoms. Not only that, though, but they give you the chance to chat with a health professional about your health conditions and any potentially new treatments and medication that is being developed. You will also be given the chance to ask any questions that you might have regarding your health condition. So, as you can see, it really is worth keeping up with your regular appointments as they will be of a huge benefit to you and your health.

Life with a chronic illness doesn’t have to be too difficult, especially with all of the above tips!