Claim OwnershipEmotional Autoimmunity: Dealing with the emotional issues of chronic illness
Subscribed: 74Played: 697
Subscribe
© 2024 Emotional Autoimmunity: Dealing with the emotional issues of chronic illness
Description
Chronic illness completely changes your life but nobody talks about or even acknowledges all of the emotional issues that come with it and I'm on a mission to change that. As a therapist living with four autoimmune diseases, I know exactly what the issues are and more importantly, how to overcome them. From medical gaslighting, dealing with grief and all of the 'what if' thoughts that keep you awake at night, let's talk about the emotional issues of chronic illness and what you can do to help yourself.
62 Episodes
Reverse
Anxiety and dealing with constant 'what if' thoughts are something that every human has to deal with as our brain is trying to interpret our environment for potential threats to try and keep us safe. But when you live with chronic illness, you will experience new levels of fear that create specific types of anxiety that non chronically ill people never need to think about. The anxiety of living in a body that is unpredictable and no longer feels safe and can make you experienc...
When you live with chronic illness, you can feel so very alone which makes getting support more important than ever. What's often shocking though is discovering just how little support is actually out there!There is so little knowledge about chronic illness in our communities, families, medical and social support systems that you can end up feel judged, blamed, isolated and left to fend for yourself. You can feel guilty for what your illness is doing to others, worry about letting o...
If you live with chronic illness and autoimmune disease, then you understand just how frustrating and debilitating brain fog can be. From the embarrassment of forgetting simple words, losing your ability to concentrate and focus or reading the same lines over and over again and still not being able to take it in, brain fog can have a significant impact impact on our work, relationships, study and motivation. But what is brain fog exactly and what is its important relationship to str...
This episode is a collaboration between myself, my clients and my social media community. We all know that one of the biggest issues we face is the lack of understanding about what chronic illness is and the ongoing impact it has on those of us living with it. In this episode I share what those of us with chronic illness most want people to understand and trust me, everyone who contributed to this did not hold back!This podcast is a great one to share with your friends, family, part...
There is no denying that when it comes to chronic illness, there is a huge gap in peoples understanding of just how much it changes your life, energy and ability. So when it comes to trying to share your feelings, doubts, fears and sadness about your experiences of living with chronic illness, you are so often met with toxic positivity responses like 'at least it's not cancer' or 'you just need to be more positive'.Many of the normal emotional experiences that come with chronic ill...
When you become chronically ill, one of the biggest challenges you will face because of how the disease so often limits your energy and ability, is an increased need for rest.In fact, rest is an essential component of responsible chronic illness management. Yet so many of us struggle with embracing rest because of ongoing issues of feeling guilty about the amount of rest we need, anxiety about everything that is being left undone and fear of being judged as lazy or selfish. And if y...
Having good boundaries in our relationships at any time are essential, but during the holiday season, they take on a much bigger importance!There are so many expectations, pressures and emotions that only happen during the Holidays and New Years Eve that are a sure fire way to ramp up your anxiety and guilt and send you crashing into a major flare that can leave you on the sidelines for days, weeks or even longer. When it comes to chronic illness, there are two key foundations that I use...
When you get chronic illness, it doesn't only change your life. The impact on your family and partners can be huge, potentially damaging and be the cause of so much guilt, conflict, resentment and division. A few weeks ago, I asked my wonderful email community to ask their partners what sorts of issues or advice they most needed and they definitely delivered!In this episode I answer questions like:Why does my partner seem so negative now?How do I stop feeling so resentful?What can I...
Irrational thoughts, otherwise known in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy circles as Cognitive Distortions are something that everyone experiences. The problem with these irrational thoughts is that they can and do influence our behaviour, emotions, beliefs and relationships and they are key contributors to high levels of stress. They are also the biggest drivers of things like guilt, anxiety, depression, overwhelm, hopelessness and relationship issues.While there are many known and com...
When you live with chronic illness, chances are high that you have experienced many moments of fear, overwhelm and grief and for so many of us in the chronic illness community, it can lead to such despair that you give up all hope. Hope of ever feeling better, hope of ever finding someone to help you, hope of being believed and hope of ever creating a better future for yourself. In this episode of the Emotional Autoimmunity podcast, I walk you through how this process happens, why w...
One of the biggest issues of living with chronic illness is that people don't "get it". They don't understand what it is, how much it impacts every part of your daily life and the complex emotions that go along with it. And because people don't get it and there's so much lack of knowledge and acceptance, you can be left feeling isolated in your experience, feeling so much grief, anxiety and overwhelm and blaming yourself for not dealing with it as well as you think you should. After working w...
October 8th was my 9th anniversary of the Hashimoto's diagnosis that left me sitting in the ruin of my life, cognitively and physically disabled with no idea if I was going to survive or ever have a chance of recovery.Because my descent into chronic illness was a year long, worsening process of what I thought at the time was terrible perimenopause symptoms, finding out I had an incurable autoimmune disease was devastating, especially once I discovered just how little actual help, support or k...
We all know that one of the biggest frustrations about living with chronic illness is the unsolicited ‘have you tried….?’ suggestions. Especially when it’s being given by someone who has no experience or knowledge about what living in your body with your illness is actually like. Even worse when it's being given by another person with chronic illness who vehemently believes that their diet, supplement or protocol is the only right way and if it didn't work for you, then you must be ...
When you live with chronic illness, one of the things you may hear quite often is a version of "not letting the illness define you" either as a caution or warning from other people or as a fear that you hold yourself as you struggle to hang on to your former life, abilities and identity.Where does this thing about "not letting the illness define you" come from though and does it have any connection to things like acceptance, denial, gaslighting, disability or ableism?In Episode 6 of Season 3,...
Changing how you eat to manage chronic illness can be a very triggering and divisive topic for so many in our chronic illness community because how and what we eat is about so much more than simply satisfying hunger. Food is family, community, culture, comfort, tradition, belonging and in many cases, the only sanctioned way to 'treat' or "indulge" ourselves and changing how you eat because of chronic illness can feel like yet another loss of the person that you used to be. Eat...
How do you know if you are a people pleaser?If you say yes to 3 or more of these statements, you definitely have some people pleasing characteristics which could be making your chronic illness symptoms worse.You find it really hard to say no to requestsYou often find yourself overcommitting to plans, events or responsibilitiesYou rarely ever disagree with someone or voice your honest feelings or thoughts. You have a tendency to go along with things that you don't like or don't want to do...
One of the biggest emotional issues that the people around us can't seem to understand is how becoming chronically ill feels like losing your old life and your old self. It's one of those big, intensely personal catastrophic events where you can clearly see and describe how you used to be and how you are now, the before and the after when everything changed for you. And it's not just the loss of your old self and life though that is hard enough to deal with.It's the loss of your fut...
Way back in 2017 when I was still in the midst of adapting to life with chronic illness, I was searching for some sort of psychological grief model to help me make sense of everything I was going through. There was nothing out there that I could find that was helpful as most of them were trying to adapt the model that Dr Elizabeth Kübler-Ross created for patients trying to come to terms with terminal illness which didn't fit my experience. So, I decided to create my own and the resu...
When you become chronically ill, along with all the disbelief, medical gaslighting and accusations of "it's all in your head", you can also meet a lot of armchair psychologists.And they just love to tell you all about the deep seated issues, long hidden trauma and other weird and wonderful subconscious things that not only created your chronic illness, but will be cured it you just 'do the inner work.'Because it must be 'psychosomatic'. Given all that, it's no surprise that when you live with...
If you have ever experienced body hypervigilance before, then you will know how debilitating it can be. Hypervigilance is a symptom of trauma and PTSD where you are left scanning your environment constantly for any potential external threat. When you have body hypervigilance, the threat is internal and it can feel like your constant awareness and vigilance of what your body is doing right now, is the only thing that is keeping you alive. In this episode, I share all abou...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States