It cannot be overestimated when it comes to long term illness and disease. Especially where, as often can be the case, inner self-judgement or outwardly directed  blame compounds the illness and often results in a resistance, conscious or not, to healing and being well.Self compassion is one of the main keys to healing

Here is an article I came across recently by Tom Robinson which illustrates how that being a little easier on yourself can be very healing. (N.B Quotes in italics are mine)

Have a Chronic Illness? Live a Lot Better by Not Being So Hard on Yourself

Having coached such people for the past five years, I’ve learned that many of them often feel inadequate, guilty, and beat themselves up because they can’t do all the things for the important people in their lives that they formerly could.

Or they have a long-standing issue from the past where they blame themselves or others and it hasn’t yet been resolved. Check his following case study.

For example, not too long ago, a woman with fibromyalgia, a painful and often debilitating condition, contacted me. Amy (not her real name) wanted to know how she could do the housework and the many other tasks she felt she needed to do to be a good wife.

It’s admirable that Amy wanted to do her housekeeping and other tasks better. However, from the way she stated her question, it was clear that because she couldn’t do them as well as she could before she became ill, Amy didn’t think she was a good wife.

Every time I hear a story like hers – and I’ve heard many of them, I’m reminded again how sad it is that people with long term illnesses feel inadequate as spouses, parents, partners, or friends because they can’t do all the things they could when they were well.

Or because they have past issues about feeling judged, criticised or rejected by others or by themeslves. There is a real challenge to living with long-term illness

The challenge of living and dealing with its symptoms are hard enough. You certainly don’t need the additional burden of feeling inadequate because of your illness- imposed limitations. To help you get rid of that burden, I’m going to share with you two very effective methods for overcoming any feelings of inadequacy you may experience because of it.

The first method is this:

• Heed this slightly modified version of the well know Native American saying, “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.”

That saying tells us to take into account all of a person’s present circumstances and challenges, as well as their past experiences and traumas, before passing judgment on them. My modified version of that saying is:

• “Don’t judge yourself until you’ve walked a mile in YOUR OWN MOCCASINS.”

What I mean is to fully let in and acknowledge all the ways your life has become more difficult, compared to how it was before the onset of your particular condition.

Now I’m not saying you should hold your own pity party, or otherwise feel sorry for yourself. But I’ve observed that most people minimize the pain they live with and trivialize the difficult, illness-related challenges they face every day.

If you do that, I strongly encourage you to admit to yourself how tough it can be to live with it.

Be Compassionate With Yourself

Here’s why: If you minimize and trivialize your pain and challenges, then, when you feel exhausted or depressed, you are likely to view the exhaustion or depression as a sign of your inadequacy.

In contrast, when you admit to yourself how hard your challenges are to deal with, you will realize that anyone in your situation would probably feel as exhausted and depressed as you do, if not more so.

You are beginning to acknowledge and listen to yourself with love and respect

Once you do that, you will most likely stop being so critical and judgmental, and begin being much kinder and gentler to yourself. Also, when you fully acknowledge how hard your symptoms are to manage, you are likely to feel a justified sense of accomplishment for how well you manage them and get through each day!

So as I said above, don’t judge yourself until you’ve walked that mile in your own moccasins.

Before telling you the second method you can use to stop getting down on yourself and to stop feeling inadequate, I have a question:

Q:What would you do if you found a bird that was injured and couldn’t fly?

If you’re like me and all the others to whom I’ve posed this question, you would either unhesitatingly take care of the bird yourself or find someone who could. And if you decided to try to find someone else but weren’t able to do so, you would certainly take care of the bird rather than abandon it.

I believe the reason you would act in this way is because, as a human being, you have an innately compassionate nature – a real desire to lessen the suffering of others, whether they be animals or people. This point is very important, because when you have a serious condition, then in a way you’re like that injured bird that can no longer fly the way it once could.

This is your body. Your inner spirit on the other hand is not chronically ill. It is a resource you can tap into to sutain and nourish yourself with. This is the springwell of compassion, of love and laughter, of soft kind caring, the gentle heart that goes out to the bird, that feels uplifted by a beautiful flower. The more you tap into this healing source the more likely you are to become well

Just for 30 seconds, turn your attention to this ‘Healing Moments’ video and see what a difference it can make to this moment

The more ‘healing moments’ you experience the more you will be nurtured from the inside and the less room there will be for self criticism and blame. Your power is the power of choice, of choosing what to focus on

Here’s another question for you:

Q: Would you ever say to that bird “Get up, dammit, and fly, like all the other birds are doing”?

Yes, the question is ridiculous. Of course you wouldn’t tell the bird that. The way I see it, being critical and judgmental of yourself because of your particular related limitations, is a lot like criticizing that injured bird for not being able to fly. Wouldn’t you agree?

The Healing Power of Compassion

Given that you would give the bird the care it needed to heal as much as it possibly could, my second method for stopping getting down on yourself is to give yourself the same compassion and care that you would, without a moment’s hesitation, give to an injured bird.

By using these two methods, a high percentage of my clients have stopped beating themselves up for their limitations. They’ve started taking much better care of themselves and they’ve then gone on to make many other positive changes in their lives.

The Power of Positive Change

A good example is a client I’ll call Linda, who has Crohn’s disease. Previously, when Linda’s life became stressful she would very often experience a major flare up.

Stress compromises the body’s immune system causing it to have to fight harder to become well

The antidote to stress is relaxation. When you stop judging yourself you relax and when you relax, self judgement loses its hold

There are lots of ways to relax and most of them are enjoyable and fun!

Have a look through the checklist below for some ideas:

Managing Stress, Preventing Illness

• Actively participate in your own healing and health management

• Learn To Meditate and do it at odd moments in the day

• Talk to yourself positively and watch uplifting movies
  

• Eat well balanced and nutritious diets

• Learn to say NO with confidence, to things you cannot do.

• Laugh more often – it’s a medicine

• Learn to  exercise regularly and get plenty of rest


Tom Robinson continues …

As we worked together, she markedly improved her ability to care for herself as she would “an injured bird,’ and worked through her remaining self-judgment by “walking a mile in her own moccasins.”

Linda’s mother recently died at the same time her best friend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Linda shuttled between helping and supporting her friend, taking care of her mother’s affairs and putting on her memorial service. Doing those things involved a lot of flying, a lot of driving, a lot of work, and a lot of stress. Because of our sessions and the work Linda did between them, she was able to do all the things those two events called for without having a flare. Bravo, Linda!

I wish you the best as you start using these methods in your own life.

Author: Thomas W. Robinson

Chronic Illness Coach Tom Robinson works with those who are overstressed or overwhelmed by their condition and life challenges. Tom helps them meet those challenges, and then he helps them find–and keep–true happiness and joy.

His free report: How to Have a Better Life Than You Ever Thought Possible – Even When Nothing Else You’ve Tried Has Worked, is available at his website: ChronicIllnessCoach.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_W._Robinson

Here are some further articles I have collected about compassion that may be worth investigating  …

Compassion

The next step, when one has stomped and subdued and ‘cast away’ one’s ‘enemies’ and ‘old programming’ and ‘inner demons,’ seems to be the further cultivation of Compassion as a Sadhana or spiritual practice

Compassion Practices

In Tibetan Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is anyone who is motivated by compassion and seeks enlightenment not only for him/herself but also for everyone

Changing Our Habit of Judgment to the Practice of Compassion

How does judging our bodies mask our need for compassion?

Cultivating Compassion: Meditation

There are at least two components to one’s spiritual practice, Wisdom and Compassion, and associating with people, especially in difficult situations, helps us grow Compassion.

Technorati Tags: challenge, compassion, compassionate, coping, healing, health, illness, living, long term, method, moments, power, stress, video, with

Active and happy self management for chronic illness is becoming an increasingly viable option and the following article looks at what’s involved and what is available in the way of support

In The Meantime Here Is A Powerful Shortlist of Natural Pain Relief Solutions To Support Your Self Management

• Laugh Your Way Free of Pain It works! Try it and see.

• Natural ease with Eazol, made with natural ingredients

• Physiotherapy Exercise Guide pain management for chronic pain

• Meals That Heal Inflammation, a nutrition guide for inflammatory pain relief

• Relieve Chronic Back Pain through a gentle home managed program

• Pain Relief With EFT a simple and natural energy therapy technique you can easily learn and apply at home. It worked for me. I can highly recommend it!

• Meditation Guide and how to manage chronic illness by deeply relaxing

• Transform Pain to Joy. Taking Control of Chronic illness instead of it controlling you

Introduction to Chronic disease managament

Are You an “Expert Patient”? Can your Doctor(s) say the following about you?

“My Patient knows more about the disease than I do; as much about the disease as I do, and enough about his/her symptoms that it is easy to communicate with him/her.”

Why is becoming an Expert Patient so important?

There is plenty of emerging research about the needs of 21st century patients. Most of that research centers around the concept of “Illness Self-Management”, for what is called “chronic illness”.

What, you ask, is a “chronic illness”

Acute Illness

Health concerns are usually classified as either acute or chronic. Acute illnesses usually begin abruptly and last only a short time. Most people with an acute illness can expect to return to normal health. A strep throat is an example of an acute illness: it is easy to diagnose with a lab test and is cured with antibiotics.

Chronic Illness

Chronic diseases are different. They usually develop slowly, last long periods of time, and often are never cured. In most cases, there is no cure. The long-term effects may be difficult to predict. Some conditions cause few problems. Others cause only episodic problems or symptoms that can be controlled with medication.

However, in some cases, a chronic disease may severely limit a person’s ability to work, go to school or take care of routine needs. Examples of chronic diseases include, but are in no way limited to: diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, emphysema, fibromyalgia, parkinsons symdrome, chronic fatigue and multiple sclerosis – just to mention a few.

Why is “Chronic Disease Self-Management” so important a concept for those with a chronic condition?

For the person with a chronic condition, there is no way not to self-manage the disease/illness. If one retires from life and stays at home as a depressed person this is a type of self-management. On the other hand, many people learn to deal with their conditions and remain active, happy participants in life.

Laugh Your Way Back to Health  Learn How

Chronic Disease Self-Management covers the following areas:

• knowing how to recognize and respond to changes in a chronic disease

• dealing with problems and emergencies

• using medicines and treatments effectively

• finding and using community resources

• getting enough exercise

• coping with fatigue, pain and sleep problems

• maintaining good nutrition

• making decisions about when to seek medical help

• working with your doctor(s) and other care providers

• talking about your illness with family and friends

• managing work, family and social activities

It is the learning of the skills necessary for this later type of proactive disease/illness self-management that is the subject of this document. The information about developing the skills is fascinating; and, they (the skills) really are the key to deciding and remaining active, happy participants with a quality of life as full as you can make it.

Research and practical experience in North America and Britain are showing that today’s patients with chronic diseases need not be mere recipients of care. They can become key decision-makers in the treatment process.

By ensuring that knowledge of their condition is developed to a point where they are empowered to take some responsibility for its management and work in partnership with their health and social care providers, patients can be given greater control over their lives.

(Note: Once again, this process of acquiring the knowledge of your condition so that you can reach the self-management level with your Doctor(s) is one of the primary purposes behind the www.disabilitykey.com website.)

Self management programs can be specifically designed (between you and your Doctor(s)) to reduce the severity of symptoms and improve confidence, resourcefulness and self-efficacy (a big word that basically means self reliance).

Chronic Pain Self Management with EFT Access Free Training Video Here

Why become a chronic disease self-manager?

For those of you who have had an opportunity to read about my professional career , you will see that I started out as a “Federal Auditor” of Human Resources practices, policies and procedures (which is why I was able to create the Disabilitykey Workbook in the first place). As an Auditor, I always wanted to know what is the “ROI” (Return on Investment) as they say in the business world, for anything I worked on, or for any initiative I tackled.

Why would people with chronic illnesses want to learn how to manage their disease symptoms? Why would their Doctors want them to learn and do these things? What is in it for both patients and Doctors?

Laugh Your Way Free of Pain It works! Try it and see.

First of all, it was a fascinating subject for me to research! And, imagine my surprise to learn that, even though the original Chronic Disease Self-Management study was conducted here in the United States at Stanford University, it appears that, at this point in time, (mid-2005), England, Scotland, and Australia appear to be further along in actually implementing programs than we are here in the US!

And, imagine my chagrin to find out that to be able to take the great online training program to become certified in chronic disease management, you have to live in England!

In the United Kingdom, their Department of Health came to the following conclusion:

• Little has been done to prepare patients for long-term management of their diseases

• They face many challenges in coping with discomfort and disability and carrying out treatment programs on a regular basis.

• They need to modify behavior to minimize undesirable outcomes, adjusting their social and work lives to accommodate their symptoms and functional limitations and deal with the emotional consequences.

• For their care to be effective, they must become adept at interpreting and reporting symptoms, judging the trends and tempo of their illness and participating with health professionals in management decisions.

(Note: language has been “Americanized” for greater ease of understanding here in America on, what they [the United Kingdom] call, “the other side of the Pond”.)

Expert patients

It was the chief medical officer for the United Kingdom, who first introduced the name ‘expert patient”. He said that expert patients are “people who have the confidence, skills, information and knowledge to play a central role in the management of life with chronic diseases.” Doesn’t this sound logical?

Here are some Chronic Illness statistics here in the US

In the US for example, less than One Percent of the people who stand to benefit from self managing their chronic arthritis – do so.

Chronic disease has become pandemic in the United States, and estimates are that it will affect 148 million people by the year 2030. Patients with chronic illnesses cost the health care system over three times more than individuals without chronic conditions.

The Population of U.S. adults over 65 is expected to double between 2000 and 2030. Over 80% of adults over 65 years of age have one or more chronic conditions — over 60% have two or more chronic conditions.

Deep Relaxation is known to be deeply healing and helps to boost the immune system and relieve pain

Find Deeply Relaxing Meditation CDs and Downloads here

Consumers with five or more chronic conditions account for two-thirds of all Medicare spending. People with chronic conditions are responsible for 78% of all health care spending, 95% of all Medicare spending, and 77% of all Medicaid spending for community-dwelling adults.

The U.S. has by far the most expensive health care system in the world — but lags most other developed countries in key quality and consumer outcomes.

However, it is the following statistic about how much actual time, on average, that a patient here in the United States spends with their Doctor(s) that really got my attention.

On average, we with a Chronic Disease spend around three hours per year with a health professional. This means that the patient is left to manage his/her own condition for the other 8757 hours of the year.

If you, or someone you know has a chronic illness, wouldn’t you be more comfortable knowing what to do during those “other” 8,757 hours that you are not in a health professional’s presence? I sure did, and I didn’t even know that such a thing as chronic disease management as a concept existed when I did the work depicted in the Disabilitykey Workbook.

I only knew that I needed a way to live the best possible life in spite of my chronic disease; I wanted to control it; I did not want it controlling me! OK, chronic disease management just seems to make sense. But, the Auditor in me asks, are there measurable, objective results that this concept is worthwhile? And, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), there are.

Chronic Disease Symptom Management Program

AHRQ-funded research at the Stanford University Patient Education Research Center led to development of the “Chronic Disease Symptom Management Program” (CDSMP). Standford’s CDSMP is a 17-hour course taught by trained lay people that teaches patients with chronic disease how to:

1) better manage their symptoms

2) adhere to medication regimens

3) maintain functional ability.

Over a period of 2 years, AHRQ-funded investigators compared health behaviors, health status, and health services use in patients age 40 to 90 years (average age, 65) who had completed the CDSMP. When compared to baseline measures taken for the 6 months prior to the CDSMP, researchers found the following:

• After 6 months, CDSMP participants had: Increased exercise. Better coping strategies and symptom management. Better communication with their physicians. Improvement in their self-rated health, disability, social and role activities, and health distress. More energy and less fatigue. Decreased disability. Fewer physician visits and hospitalizations.

• After 1 year, CDSMP participants had: Significant improvements in energy, health status, social and role activities, and self-efficacy. Less fatigue or health distress. Fewer visits to the emergency room. No decline in activity or role functions, even though there was a slight increase in disability after 1 year.

• After 2 years, CDSMP participants had: No further increase in disability. Reduced health distress. Fewer visits to physicians and emergency rooms. Increased self-efficacy. Another source of actual results from people who have made the decision to become Chronic Disease Self-Managers comes from The United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has a website describing the recent results of their Expert Patient “Programme” (EPP). The website provides periodic ‘eUpdates’ to inform people about new developments within the Expert Patients Programme such as new publications, forthcoming events and news from the national team.

The EPP is a National Health Service (NHS) lay led self-management programme for people living with any long-term health condition(s).

Groups of 8-16 participants, with a mix of different conditions, meet over six weekly sessions and are led through a structured course by trained tutors who are also living with a long-term condition.

Each session (lasting two and a half hours) looks at ways to better manage the effects of their long-term condition. For more information about the EPP please visit the EPP website at www.expertpatients.nhs.uk

EPP Pilot Internal Evaluation

Internal evaluation data from approximately 1000 EPP participants who completed the course between Jan 2003 and Jan 2005 indicates that the programme is achieving its aims in:

1) Providing significant numbers of people with long term conditions with the confidence and skills to better manage their condition on a daily basis. – 45% said they felt more confident that they would not let common symptoms (pain, tiredness, depression and breathlessness) interfere with their lives. – 38% felt that such symptoms were less severe 4 – 6 months after completing the course. – 33% felt better prepared for consultations with health professionals.

2) Providing significant reductions in service usage by people with long term conditions completing the EPP course. – 7% reductions in GP consultations – 10% reductions in Outpatient visits – 16% reductions in A&E attendances (US note: note sure what this is.) – 9% reductions in Physiotherapy use

Over 94% of those who took part felt supported and satisfied with the course.

If you want to sign up to receive periodic updated information about what the Brits are doing, you too can sign up to receive an “eUpdate” as they call them. It is FREE, and you can sign up by going to: www.expertpatients.nhs.uk.

What is Chronic disease self-management?

Chronic Disease Self-Management; Self-Efficacy; great terms, but what do they really mean, and how does one start to become a Chronic Disease Self-Manager?

Consider the following quotations associated with these concepts.

“Row Your Own Boat” – Chronic Disease Self-Management.

”Every bird flies with its own wings.” Swahili proverb

What do the two quotations have in common? First of all, the desire, then the knowledge, then the action to take back control over your health, and your life.

Here are questions – a ‘mini quizz’ that you can use to ask yourself about your “readiness” to adopt the concept of Chronic Disease Self-Management (or, to assist someone else in their journey toward this objective).

Chronic Disease Self-Management Readiness Test

Created By Stanford University’s Patient Education Research Center, this test is called: Self-Efficacy for Managing Chonic Diseases 6-Item Scale. The test measures how confident you are that you can keep ‘your situation’ (i.e., the situation addressed in each of the following 6 questions) caused by your disease from interfering with the things you want to do?

For each of the following questions, please choose the number (between 1 and 10) that corresponds to how confident you are that you can keep the symptoms caused by your disease from interfering with the things you want to do? #1 represents “Not at all confident”; #10 represents “Totally confident”.

1) How confident are you that you can keep the fatigue caused by your disease from interfering with the things you want to do?

2) How confident are you that you can keep the physical discomfort or pain of your disease from interfering with the things you want to do?

3) How confident are you that you can keep the emotional distress caused by your disease from interfering with the things you want to do?

4) How confident are you that you can keep any other symptoms or

health problems you have from interfering with the things you want to do?

5) How confident are you that you can do the different tasks and activities needed to manage your health condition so as to reduce your need to see a doctor?

6) How confident are you that you can do things other than just taking medication to reduce how much you illness affects your everyday life?

The higher you score toward “10″ on each question, the more “self-efficacy” you have.

(Reminder: self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage situations.)

As you can probably figure out, I score either 9 or 10 on each question. My Disabilitykey Workbook (see www.disabilitykey.com) and the confidence that I received by first, executing the processes contined therein for myself, and then in developing the Workbook to assist others, has allowed my self-efficacy to be high.

OK, you have rated yourself, and you want to know more about the ‘what’ of this topic. First, we will discuss the definition of Chronic Disease Self-Management; next, the stages of a “chronic disease self-help behavioral change”; and, finally, something called “social learning theory”.

Definition of Chronic Disease Self-Management

Based on a comprehensive literature review of over 400 articles, Researchers have proposed the following definition.

“Chronic disease self-management involves [the person with the chronic disease] engaging in activities that protect and promote health, monitoring and managing of symptoms and signs of illness, managing the impacts of illness on functioning, emotions and interpersonal relationships and adhering to treatment regimes.”

There are a number of key elements to this definition that will enable us to develop a practical concept of self-management. It is important to note that these elements are about the behaviors of the patient, rather than models of self-management for health care systems, service providers or health professionals.

These elements suggest that self-management:

• Entails engaging in activities that promote health
• Involves managing a chronic condition by monitoring signs and symptoms
• Entails dealing with the effect of a chronic condition on personal well being and interpersonal relationships and
• Involves following a treatment plan prescribed to you by your Doctor(s).

The definition of self-management encompasses a range of behaviors, as well as knowledge and attitudes and is an important starting point towards the development of a concept of chronic disease self-management.

Help getting from where you are to becoming a Chronic Disease Self-Manager

Stages of Behavioral Change

A model of behavior change that has been applied to chronic disease self-management is based on research on how people change behavior, either on their own or within an intervention program (i.e. some sort of action to assist in the change). The theory is that the ceasing of risk behaviors (eg. smoking) and acquisition of health promoting behaviors (eg. physical activity, relaxation) involves the progression through the stages of change.

Health Promoting Behaviours

Pre-contemplation [not thinking of change] Contemplation [thinking of change] Determination [ taking preliminary steps to change] Action [ actively engaging behavior change] Maintenance [ sustained behavioral change] Relapse [ can occur at any point.]

‘Can do’ Attitude

Behavioral change is facilitated by a personal sense of control.

If people believe that they can take action to solve a problem, they become more inclined to do so and feel more committed to this decision. This “can do” attitude mirrors a sense of control over one’s environment. It reflects the belief of being able to master challenging demands by means of adaptive action. It can also be regarded as an optimistic view of one’s capacity to deal with stress. (Not to sound redundant, but this really is about the glass being “half-full” and not “half-empty”.)

Social Learning

OK, now we understand the behavioral change steps, now on to the social learning stage. The theoretical underpinning of effective chronic disease self-management programs should be based on social learning and behavioral theories.

The key principles of these theories as applied to chronic disease self-management are:

• Disease management skills are learned and behavior is self-directed
• Motivation and confidence (including self-efficacy) in managing one’s condition dictate an individual’s success
• The social environment (ie. family, workplace & health care system) support or impede self-management and
• Monitoring and responding to changes in disease state, symptoms, emotions and functioning improve adaptation to the chronic condition.

Becoming Trained In Chronic Disease Management

How do you become trained in Chronic Disease Self-Management?

Here are the primary resources available

1) Start with your own health insurance company. Call up the Customer Service folks in Plan, and ask if they offer “Chronic Disease Self Management Program” classes. My Internet searches indicate that many of the larger companies are offering such classes for their enrolees. And, in some cases, self-management is becoming a requirement of retaining insurance coverage!

2) Go to your State’s Home Website, and look up the Department of Health, and of Aging. In some cases they might be the same, in others, different. Call each and see if and when they will be offering classes in your city or county for a Chronic Disease Self Management Program.

3) Use one of the many Internet search engines to locate this statement: “(your state) Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP)”. This should help you locate classes in your state. In my state, they located classes by county and city. Some of the “bigger” states even offer classes derived from the original Stanford research program.

4) Use one of the many Internet search engines to ask locate this statement: “Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP)”. This should provide you with additional options.

5) Finally, and probably the best source, from the original Stanford site where the concept was created, there is a link to each state’s CDSMP sites: http://patienteducation.stanford.edu/programs/cdsites.html If you go to this site, you can click onto your state and see which organizations in your state are licensed to offer the Chronic Disease Self-Management program.

Conclusion

The National Center for Quality Assurance (NCQA) in their 2004 Health Care Quality Report comments that “the U.S. healthcare system as a whole remains plagued by deadly quality gaps that contribute to 42,000 to 79,000 avoidable deaths every year and $1.8 Billion in excess medical costs due to the system’s routine failure to provide needed care.”

According to Catherine Hoffman of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half the people in the U.S. are living with chronic conditions, at a cost of $234 billion in lost productivity and $425 billion in medical spending per year. These figures are rising.

Moreover, they do not include billions of dollars in lost productivity of employees who miss work to care for family members who have chronic conditions. Many people with chronic conditions, as well as family members who care for them, also suffer needlessly from the physical and emotional effects of their illness. By helping people change their behaviors and adapt to their conditions, self-management programs often increase people’s adherence to medical treatments, strengthen their control of pain and symptoms, and improve their overall emotional well-being.

About The Author

Carolyn Magura, noted disability / ADA expert, has written an e-Book documenting the process that allowed her to:

a) continue to work and receive her ‘full salary’ while on Long Term Disability; and

b) become the first person in her State to qualify for Social Security Disability the first time, in under 30 days.

Click here (http://www.disabilitykey.com/products.htm) to receive Carolyn ‘s easy-to-read, easy-to-follow direct guide through this difficult, trying process. If you are disabled, don’t let this disabiling process disable you. Read Carolyns Disability Key Blog http://www.disabilitykey.com/disabilitykeyblog.shtml.

Disabilitykey.com is a website designed to assist each person in his/her own unique quest to navigate through the difficult and often conflicting and misleading information about coping with disabilities.

Here are some more posts related to the topic of coping with a chronic illness…

Coping with Chronic Illness in Your Marriage

How can you improve your marriage when you live with chronic illness Bill and Pam Farrel are relationship specialists international speakers and authors of 30 books including best-selling Men are like Waffles Women are like Spaghetti.  

Living with the downs of chronic illness

I recently googled coping with chronic illness and found an interesting article where she says that a Ployanna like existance is not real and that intermittent depression is normal and to be expected. Living in the acceptance stage 

Coping with Chronic Illness in Marriage

It’s easy to become a little self-absorbed when living with chronic illness and, for the spouse, it’s normal to resent MS and the impositions it imposes. The trick is not to resent each other. 

Coping with chronic illness

My Mom has been coping with a crush of medical problems that resulted in an emergency room visit a month ago and surgery one day last week. My mother’s problems aren’t life threatening, thankfully, but they are chronic illnesses 

In Sickness and in Play Children Coping with Chronic Illness

For children who live with a chronic illness, each day is filled with endless treatments, painful symptoms, confusion, and embarrassment. How can an eight-year-old girl understand diabetes, let alone explain to her schoolmates

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This hidden aspect is how we feel, react and respond, or cope or don’t cope with the condition we find ourselves in.

Living with chronic illness impacts one’s physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Chronic illness often causes one to feel helpless and hopeless, discouraged and isolated. It can devastate one’s career and financial security, friendships and love relationships, creativity, concentration, motivation, and one’s very peace of mind.

It is important now and useful long-term, to remain as active, social, and productive as possible. That means focus on what you can do and let go of what you can no longer do. Create priorities for your body, mind, heart, and soul.

Ancient philosophers and healers recognized that the body and the mind were one. Modern research confirms this body/mind connection. In the last 15 years, Western medicine has coined a term for what the ancients knew: psychoneuroimmunology.

Harvard Medical School now publishes a professional journal called Mind/Body Medicine. Studies show that improved physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being stimulate an innate healing response in the body. It is possible to create a healthier lifestyle that will promote wellness. The key is to balance the physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life.

Improving and maintaining physical well-being includes proper nutrition, rest, and exercise. It means carefully selecting the activities in which you participate and the people with whom you spend time to ensure that you are making good choices about expending energy and making the most of each day.

Paying attention to the psychological and emotional aspects of your life includes becoming a good observer of your thoughts, feelings, and how/what you feel in your body. This is a time to allow yourself to experience, examine, and express your thoughts and feelings in an honest and forthright way.

Accurately expressing yourself is one of the most important aspects of living with chronic illness. No one will know how you feel and what you can reasonably be expected to do or not do unless you tell people directly. Value yourself and take ownership of your feelings, and thoughts, your resources and choices.

Honor and express your deepest truth and make what you say and how you say it match what you feel. Say your real ‘yes’ and your real ‘no’ and say what you feel without blaming or needing to please others.

Don’t avoid saying what is in your heart or on your mind to say. Don’t hide your worries and concerns because you don’t want others to know you are not in control.

Accessing your spiritual nature can be as easy as watching the sunset or taking a walk through a beautiful garden. You might also consider meditation, yoga, chanting, or praying. Whether you call it God, the Universe, higher power, or ‘the force’ a la Steven Spielberg, it is quite comforting and healing to experience the inner peace that is uniquely you.

Sitting in the quiet and allowing your attention to flow inward is very foreign to men and women in the Western world. It is, however, a fundamental practice if one is to develop and maintain health and well-being, inside and outside.

The gift in adversity

Human beings are resilient and adaptable. When faced with seemingly insurmountable tasks, we rise to the occasion. Chronic illness often motivates us to re-evaluate and reconsider every aspect of life; to review and change habits, goals, choices, and decisions.

This review includes everything from food choices, career/work, social relationships and recreational activities, to including naps and going to sleep earlier. Now is the time to create a more flexible schedule and intentionally pace yourself.

Determination and persistence will enable you to stay motivated through the tough times, and stay involved in activities that are meaningful and joyful. Maintaining your sense of humor is essential.

Invite people into your life who are kind, respectful, and compassionate. Stay away from well-meaning, well-intentioned people who have an agenda for you and can’t see you or hear you accurately.

This is the opportunity to create the changes in your life that will bring meaning to every day and cause you to choose and maintain a lifestyle that promotes and sustains your well-being: physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual.

While chronic illness may close some doors, it will no doubt open others. Take good care! You’re worth it.

Remember, only YOU can make it happen!

If you like this article, please read more about
Dr. Jackie’s relationship dating advice and help for issues and problems.

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The inner critic

Coping with chronic illness can often include coping with all of the mixed feelings that arise around it and at the beginning  many of them can be negative . I see it as an invitation to ‘clear out’the old negative ways of thinking to make room for positive feelings and experiences to rise and take their place. Here is a short video about the inner critic which all of us have and many of us find ourselves victim to. The key is to take control of its wild ramblings and not to take them so seriously.

I look forward to receiving any comments you may have about this video or article or indeed about anything else related to chronic illness that you would like to discuss or comment on

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A note about the author of the above article: Dr. Jackie Black

Dr. Jackie is an internationally recognized relationship expert, educator and coach. Advice and coaching about personal relationships is Dr. Jackie’s passion. Her goal is to inspire and support single men, single women and couples through the challenges and pitfalls of dating, loving and building lasting, committed relationships in today’s fast-paced world. Dr. Jackie’s Relationship Coaching Programs and Groups, her Blog, downloadable PodCasts and her Internet streaming radio show are jam-packed with valuable dating tips and strategies.

Check out Dr. Jackie’s Podcasts here: http://www.relationshiptalkpodcast.com

Check out Dr. Jackie’s Blog here: http://www.askdrjackie.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Jackie_Black

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