Blog 50: Chronic Illness

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Here I will be posting my thoughts, helpful tips, positive quotes and my life! I hope it helps to bring a little bit of sparkle to your day ✨

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Chronic illness can cause mental health issues. I know this played a massive role in why I was depressed, anxious, stressed and so on…

A chronic illness is an illness you have for life, thats not life threatening. This means you are in pain 24.7 and it never goes away!

There is so much stress that comes along side with chronic illnesses. Not only are you in pain 24.7 but you have people not believing you’re ill, constant hospital visits or maybe your appointment is months away or keeps getting cancelled. You lose friends, you’re struggling to do daily life activities such as brushing your teeth, washing your hair, not alone school or work. Maybe you have other responsibilities like looking after family. It’s a lot to cope with and it’s hard to keep up am I right? Life becomes a task and you feel like you’re not living your life.

Tip’s on how to cope with chronic pain:

Pain relief being the obvious, like it helps right? Speaking to your doctor can help you in finding pain relief that helps you personally. They can prescribe you stronger relief via prescription. You don’t have to just mange with painkillers that don’t touch the sides, there are more options if you ask.

Exercise: In some cases exercise may help you - For example people who have arthritis benefit from swimming and yoga or you may need to lose weight due to a health condition, there are many gentle exercises to ease in to.

Physio Therapy: If you think this would benefit you. Speak to your doctor

Sleep hygiene: Chronic pain and poor sleep often go hand-in-hand. Prioritise sleep through routines, limiting screen time, and reducing caffeine. Also taking more naps or rests through out the day.

More rest! Take it easy and don’t over do it. I know I’m guilty of this.

Nutrition: Some people find symptom relief by reducing inflammatory foods, I know this helps me! Or having a gluten and lactose free diet.

Stress management: Chronic pain is often made worse by stress—consider journaling, gentle hobbies, or support groups.

Using mobility aids: You don’t have to feel embarrassed. If you need more support with walking you could look at getting a walking aid or walking stick. If you get really tired and exhausted, try a wheel chair. You could even get a stair lift or put handle bars up around the house to better aid your life style. It doesn’t matter how old you are. If these things help give you a better quality of life, then you should use them! They could really help your day to day life.

Hot water bottles / heating pads are life - Always keep one in your bag!

You could try regular massages or acupuncture, but they can be a little pricey..

Talking to work: You need to tell work your illness so they can better help you. Struggling at work only makes it worse and they would be happy to assist you in making you more comfortable in your work environment. This could be taking more comfort/ toilet breaks, working from home if you are office based. Taking a longer break or even adjusting your hours!

This is a wake up call but hear me out... Stop living like a healthy person! What do I mean by this? This means stop trying to do everything in a day that a healthy well person would do. A healthy person would take time getting dressed, go to work, maybe do something after work or maybe they clean their house, do errands… As a chronically ill person, we follow a healthy persons routine and it’s draining. I know I can’t keep up! We don’t have as much energy as they do and we need to remember this. I know after a day out I'm ready to go to bed! A day shopping wipes me out… Yet we expect ourselves to just recover and get on with it - Why?

I know there is not much help out there for dealing with chronic illness and we are expected to just live a normal life and keep up, but just know you can take it easy and there are little things you can do to help. As always, you should always try to speak to your doctor should your symptoms get worse or is making your quality of life poor.

✨ You are not alone and you are strong!

I hope this helps and share your tips below in the comments.

Rachel Spooner 🫶🏻