Chronic Illness Therapy & Counselling
Medical Illness Support
Few life experiences are as distressing as being diagnosed with a serious, acute or chronic illness—or having a loved one receive such a diagnosis. It’s normal to experience a flood of difficult and conflicting emotions. In fact, 30% of people with medical illnesses also have, or develop, a mental health concern. In addition, fully two-thirds of high medical users have mental health issues, most commonly, depression, anxiety and somatization. And the reverse is true, as well—people struggling with mental health often tend to be in poorer physical health.
Effects of Chronic Illness
Hearing a new and frightening diagnosis for yourself, a child, spouse, parent or other loved one can prompt a variety of emotional responses, including a sense of grief or loss, anxiety, hyper-vigilance and emotional exhaustion. It can also make you feel isolated or alone.
The disruption to your family routine from increased medical visits also makes life more complicated and stressful. And ironically, mental health issues can also arise from medical treatment itself, such as a reaction to powerful medicines.
In addition, the person diagnosed with a medical condition, and/or family and supporters, must take on challenging new roles. They may have to learn complex terminology, become a medical-system advocate and sometimes, a healthcare decision maker for children or patients not well enough to make their own choices. When caring for a sick child or loved one, you sometimes have to act as a nurse, pharmacist and counsellor, on top of your existing family roles
Living with a serious illness or disability can take a toll on the whole family. To use a light-hearted example, in the animated classic Finding Nemo, the young clownfish Nemo is disabled, which has led to a lifetime of being underestimated, while at the same time, his widowed father has become overprotective. Obviously life is not an animated movie. Yet this simple illustration shows how, without even realizing it, patients and loved ones can allow an illness or disability to constrain their choices and colour their daily lives.
Chronic Illness Treatment
When facing an illness, the myriad stressors start with simply understanding a complex diagnosis and its treatment. They can go on to include isolation, fear of the unknown, lack of control, changes in regular routine, work and career implications, financial challenges and, not surprisingly, exhaustion.
When you’re in this state, it can be hard to even think about anything else. Your whole world is taken over with a medical focus. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The work of therapy is to help restore balance and a sense of control to your life. You can learn to find small things that you can enjoy every day, and set realistic short-term goals for yourself. Therapy can help you bring alternate stories to the forefront of your experience—stories such as the resiliency and courage you’re demonstrating, as you work through a difficult period in your life.
Hope for Individuals Dealing with Chronic Illness
