How Health Counselling works with Chronic Illness
The treatment side of chronic health within the mental health field needs to focus on three themes.
First Grieving losses as they can range from daily life infringements, to a severe altering of what is normal for you. Parts of your identity can change when you lose both your abilities and roles at the same time. It can be scary and painful. Emotions that come with this are same as grief and can hit you at any time. This is important to recognize and make space for in counseling.
Next, Acceptance of both the disorder and yourself need to be focused on. As it can be a long journey. But you don't need to do it alone.
In the end we can come to a place of self-compassion. And start to re-build plans, through integrating self-management skills. And by adjusting what life will look like with a new condition.
Some skills we teach in counselling and through our Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. These skills can help us bring about balance between the ways that our physical symptoms affect our mental states. These have been compiled into a large workbook and online course for those who need it in our shop. Here is one example skill below:
Living Within an Energy Envelope:
Research shows that those who stay within their energy envelope have significant improvements in physical functioning and fatigue severity compared to those who exceed their envelope"
Living within an Energy Envelop will help to balance your symptoms as a way to better managing time. If this can be done relationships and mental health will improve (CCDP, 2013). A good way of determining this is looking at how long can you go out (socially, exercising, or working) before you notice your symptoms. This gives you a picture of your energy envelope. For example, if you’re walking for 15 minutes and then feel pressure in your chest and exhaustion that means that to stay within your energy envelop you should go for 10 minutes next time. And then if there’s no symptoms after ten try doing eleven minutes the next day to grow your envelop.
More to come but check out the store if you need the skills now.
And be sure to work with our chronic illness therapist online to get help for your chronic disease conditions.
