Coping
Feeling Good About Yourself When You're Sick and Tired
Chronic illness can have a devastating impact on your psychic well-being. No matter how agonizing the physical distress, the mental anguish can be more difficult for you to bear. Self-doubt, self-loathing, helplessness, powerlessness, anxiety and fear are some of the demons that people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome battle daily. Illness can wipe out self-confidence and peace, and in their place leave painful doubts about what is real. So what can you do? One sample situation and solution is below.
Giving in to Illness – Or Giving Up
"How do I fight such an illness? What's the use? Maybe if I get even sicker, people will see that I really am suffering. Maybe I should let myself go and really look sick. I would rather die than face this for the rest of my life."
We all occasionally feel sorry for ourselves. But self-pity is not attractive; nor is it conducive to a healthy mind set. Feeling sorry for yourself fosters self-absorption and its consequent behaviors: complaining, petulance, demands for service and attention. This leads to loneliness and sadness.
When we stop trying to cope with our illness, to understand it, to deal with it as courageously as we can, then the illness can crush our spirit. Living with chronic illness is a soul-sized battle. If the flu can momentarily flatten us, chronic flu-like symptoms can be devastating! Excruciating pain and indescribable exhaustion both seem like torture. The men and women besieged by chronic illness need all the support of their spirits and all of the inspiring support of those who know and love them.
How do you keep up the fight? Take one day at a time. Get up right away in the morning. Don’t lie in bed and think hopeless thoughts. Live today, doing what you can, not letting yourself worry about what you might not be able to do tomorrow. Be thankful for what you have rather than think of what you have not. Strive for the courage to accept your illness with dignity – not denying it. Care for yourself wisely and care for others generously. Enjoy beauty wherever you find it.
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