Chronic Illness
What is Chronic Illness?
A chronic Illness is a long-term illness that impacts your daily life and may or may not be curable. Aside from the immediate medical effects, living with a chronic illness can significantly affect you psychologically.
Some of the most common chronic illnesses include:
- Heart Disease
- Cancer
- Diabetes
Some chronic autoimmune illnesses include:
- Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Sjögren’s Syndrome
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Lupus, SLE)
- Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease
- Celiac disease
- Graves’ disease
- Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
- Dermatomyositis
- Psoriasis
Other chronic conditions include:
- COVID-19 Long-Hauler Syndrome
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Fibromyalgia
- And more
Depending on your diagnosis and how severe it is, you may experience changes in your lifestyle, level of physical functioning, and even find that your role in your family and community has changed.
While the stress of learning how to manage and adjust to the demands of your illness can be overwhelming, the knowledge that it may exist for the rest of your life can become mentally debilitating.
How I Can Help You:
Having a chronic illness can often be very stressful, scary, and emotionally draining. You may feel isolated and alone as your friends and family might not understand your daily struggles.
Having a chronic illness can often lead to guilt, depression, sadness, grief, denial, fear, anger, resentment, and shame.
I can help you to:
- Confront your diagnosis
- Utilize active coping strategies
- Get to a place of acceptance
- Better manage your pain and fatigue
- Have more life satisfaction
- Feel empowered
- Regain a sense of control
Some of the types of therapies I utilize when working with clients who have suffered from chronic illnesses are:
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- And many more
My Experience with Chronic Illness
I have several overlapping autoimmune diseases myself as well as two forms of dysautonomia called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST). I can relate to the battles you are facing every day from the moment you get up.
I am in a unique position as a therapist as well as a chronic illness patient and advocate to help you achieve emotional well-being that will allow you to get through your physical battles.
