Emotional Autoimmunity: Dealing with the emotional issues of chronic illness

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 stress and anxiety?What role does inflammation play with brain fog and how does it affect your cognition and symptoms?And more importantly, how can you manage brain fog and still work and function without creating even more stress, guilt and anxiety for yourself?In this episode I cover all of this and so much more including my top tips for managing the impact of brain fog and reducing the frustration for when it happens to you. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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, partners and chronic illness communities so make sure you listen and share and if you want to help me reach more people who need to hear this, please leave me a review. Let's help educate and spread the word of the practical realities and emotional issues that becoming chronically ill bring from those who know it best. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 illness are so often wrongly interpreted by others as self-pity which feels dismissive, judgmental and demeaning. In this episode I will walk you through all the ways that self-pity, self-compassion and toxic positivity relate to living with chronic illness and give you some insight into dealing with toxic positivity and learning to practice and benefit from self-compassion. If you live with chronic illness and have ever worried about getting stuck in self-pity or felt shut down by all the 'just think more positive' people, then this episode is for you!Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 you are resting while still feeling guilty, ashamed or anxious, then you can't get any benefit from rest at all. In this episode I walk you through the issues with guilt about rest, why it happens and give strategies on how you can start changing your relationship with rest so you can start making the most of it. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 to not only feel good about setting boundaries, but start keeping them guilt free. In this last podcast of the year for 2023, I walk you through what those foundations are, give clear examples of why and how they work and tell you practical ways you can start thinking about what boundaries you can start setting in place to better protect your precious health and energy. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 do when I am worried that the unconventional diet or interventions they want to use will make them even sicker?Why am I feeling so resentful and tired of hearing about the illness all the time?All this and so much more in episode 12 and if you have any future questions for "Dear Kerry"  and you want some great free resources to help you deal with the complex emotional issues of living with chronic illness, make sure you join my email community at my website. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 common cognitive distortions that have been identified, when it comes to chronic illness, there are five that are the most globally experienced and the most damaging. In this episode of the Emotional Autoimmunity podcast, I take you through the top 5 Chronic Illness irrational thoughts, how we use them and more importantly, what you can do to challenge and overcome them. Some of them may even surprise you. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 we are all vulnerable to it and most importantly, how you can help yourself find that spark of hope again.If you are feeling alone, in despair and finding it so hard to hope, this episode will help you feel less alone, more empowered and more willing to hope again. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 with 100's of clients around the world and my own experience living with four autoimmune diseases for over a decade now, I know that there are five key emotional issues that everyone with chronic illness feels at some point.Not only that, I know that these emotions are a completely normal response and reaction to the life changing experience of becoming chronically ill. In this episode I will walk you through the five key emotional issues of chronic illness and explain how they can affect you so if you are wondering if what you are feeling is 'normal' or not, have a listen. I promise it's not 'just you." Trigger warning: I discuss suicidal thoughts near the end of the podcast and give a verbal warning  of this in advance so you can choose to stop the podcast if this is a trigger for you. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 knowledge was out there. Now 4 diagnoses in and having worked with 100's of clients around the world helping them overcome the often complex emotions that go along with chronic illness, I'm sharing with you the 10 most important things I've learned from 10 years with chronic illness. Perhaps they will help you as well. Have a listen to this podcast and find out. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 doing it wrong. It's something that we all experience and it very rarely ever feels helpful at all because generally, unsolicited advice always feels like criticism or judgement, especially when it comes from close friends and family. Why do people do this and how can you deal with all the "have you tried..." suggestions or the aggressive advice giving? Let's talk about it this episode of The Emotional Autoimmunity Podcast, shall we. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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, I take a deep dive into this complex and often triggering topic of "not letting the illness define you" to explore what it means for you and your experience of  living with  the reality of chronic illness.There are so many layers to this and there's a lot to go over so settle back, make yourself comfortable and let's unravel all the interwoven parts of this tangled topic together.Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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. Eating differently from others can also be a huge cause of stress, judgement and conflict with family, friends and even perfect strangers who all seem to have strong opinions about how you choose to eat.Fear of creating an eating disorder, fear of further damaging your body, fear of managing all the effort and preparation involved. It's a huge endeavour when you are already feeling sick, brain fogged and living in pain. More importantly, changing how you eat to manage chronic illness can also feel like  another pressure or  something that you have 'failed at' because either you tried it and it didn't work for you or every time you try, you keep failing and sabotaging yourself. In this episode, I will walk you through all of the complex emotional pro's and con's of changing how you eat to manage chronic illness, share my experiences and insights and  the tools I use that not only work for me, but for my clients as well.  Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 to not create conflictYou feel pressured to be "nice" at all times and not complain.You often feel that people take advantage of you or don't respect your time and energy. You feel resentful, exhausted, overwhelmed and unappreciatedIt feels like no matter how much you give, others still aren't there for youSound familiar?Then this podcast is for you!Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 future and the life you thought you were going to have, the things you thought you would get to do and the loss of living in a fully functioning and reliable body. It's also a loss that very few people can understand and a grief that is ongoing. In this episode, I will walk you through what this grief is, why it happens and explain why it's so difficult to have it validated or accepted by others. Let's talk about how it really feels to lose your old life and self to chronic illness and what it means for you.Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 result is my e-book "Moving through the Grief of Chronic illness."While I have always made my e-book freely available as a gift for joining my email community, I know that not everyone has the ability to read at the moment so this episode is an audio version just for you!While listening it's important to be aware that this is NOT a linear model. Not everyone will experience every single stage and it's very normal to switch back and forth between stages as new health challenges arise. Please share this with anyone you think needs to hear it. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 chronic illness , you don't consider prioritising your emotional issues or mental health because you are too busy trying to get people to believe that your illness is actually real and not 'all in your head.'In this episode, I take you through exactly why the emotions of chronic illness are not believed or supported and how your emotions really affect your body.It's going to give you some insight and strategies that will help. Have a listen. Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

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 about hypervigilance, and body hypervigilance, my own experiences of body hypervigilance and my top skills and tools you can use  to stop it happening.  Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

Dating no matter what your age or situation is absolutely guaranteed to bring out all of your insecurities and living with chronic illness adds a whole new level of difficulties. How do you deal with feeling "less than" you were before?How much do you share about your illness?How do you work around dietary issues?How and when do you disclose your illness?How can you build your self confidence to get out into the dating world?All of these questions and more will be answered in this podcast about dating with chronic illness. Listen now!Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.

If you live with chronic illness, then you have probably experienced some form of Medical Gaslighting.  In fact, having an experience of Medical Gaslighting seems to be the rule rather than the exception.Gaslighting in any setting is a form of emotional abuse, however Medical Gaslighting is not only emotionally damaging, it can result in disability, unnecessary pain and suffering and even death. At the very least, it can delay a much needed diagnosis for years or even, for decades so knowing how to identify and deal with Medical Gaslighting is the most important set of emotional skills that you need to have.Want to know all about Medical Gaslighting and how to deal with it? Then you need to listen to this podcast!Kerry Jeffery is a Coach, Counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist helping clients all around the world to overcome the emotional issues of living with chronic illness. She lives in Melbourne, Australia along with Hashimoto's, Celiac, Antiphospholipid Syndrome and Type 1 Diabetes. Find out more about Kerry and her Therapy programs here.Book your FREE online Discovery Session with Kerry here.Follow Kerry for daily posts on Facebook here.