Living with a Chronic Illness: What You Should Know
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Living with a chronic illness is no easy task. When you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to know what to do. This article discusses some ways that living with a chronic illness can affect your life and how you go about doing things. It also touches on some tips for maintaining your health while dealing with this condition.
It’s important for those living with chronic illness to find support networks – whether it’s family, friends who’ve been through the same thing or a therapist – to help you get through.
It can be hard at first to establish new daily routines and habits that work with your illness. But these small changes could eventually make coping easier for both those living with chronic illnesses and their loved ones.
Table of Contents
What is considered a chronic illness?
A chronic illness is one that lasts for a long period of time and does not have a cure. Here are some examples:
- Asthma
- Diabetes mellitus type I or II (Type III would be gestational)
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Lupus
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple sclerosis
Chronic illnesses are often manageable by taking medications and working with a doctor. However, it is important to be aware of the following complications that can happen:
- Depression or anxiety related to chronic illness (can lead to social isolation)Weight gain from being inactive due to pain or fatigue (or muscle loss)
- Side effects of medication
- Altered life expectancy from chronic illness, depending on the illness you have.
Can you get life insurance with a chronic illness?
If you are living with a chronic illness, it may be difficult to obtain life insurance. Here are some considerations and questions that you should ask:
- Do I need long-term care? If so, how much will this cost over the course of my lifetime? How often do I need medical treatment for my condition or symptoms can change from day to day?
2. What are the risks involved with my condition, and how will they affect me in different life stages (e.g., when I am a young adult and just starting out)?
3. Do I need disability insurance or long-term care insurance? What coverage should be provided by these types of plans, and what type of income will I need to provide for my dependents in the case of an extended illness or disability?
4. What are the benefits and limitations of a group long-term care policy, compared with other types of coverage available on the market today?
5. How can life insurance and long-term care help me meet my financial obligations while still providing for my loved ones?
6. What kind of life insurance do I need? What type of benefits should a good plan offer me, and how can it help protect my loved ones if something happens to me?
7. Do I have the legal right to make decisions about medical care for myself or someone else in case an emergency arises while I’m unconscious or incapacitated?
Does living with a chronic illness count as a disability?
A chronic illness is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A person may have two or more disabilities, such as being disabled in both seeing and walking.
A chronic illness can be physical, mental, developmental, or neurological (such as Alzheimer’s). It may limit your ability to perform certain tasks at work or school. A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.
What do I need to know about living with a chronic illness?
You should be aware of some factors that may affect your ability or inability to work and if you are eligible for benefits. For example, how much money is coming in from different sources (such as disability payments), what kind of medical treatment you’re getting, any other illnesses you may have, and the severity of your condition.
What it is like living with a chronic illness
The simplest things cause me pain. It can be doing the dishes, laundry any household chores. etc. When I have to leave the house to run errands, it takes 3 days or more to recover. My sleep is interrupted due to pain. There are days just getting out of bed is difficult.
Sometimes I wake up and sit on the couch to watch some television to fully wake up. I end up going back to bed because my body just does not want to function.
I am also tired a lot and take a nap just about every single day. When I discussed this with my doctors they said to just nap when I feel like I need one. It’s my body’s way of telling me it needs rest.
Can you imagine what it’s like to need a nap after doing something as simple as going to the grocery store?
A perfect way to describe living with a chronic illness is the spoon theory. The things healthy people do all day and don’t think twice about can be draining for us. There are days I don’t even bother to get dressed because the idea of clothes is just too painful.
If you know someone with a chronic illness, I’m sure you’ve experienced them canceling plans with you almost at the last minute. This is because we don’t know how we’ll feel one day to the next.
We may feel fine when we make plans to hang out, but when that day comes, it’s a bad day and our symptoms are flaring up. Please do NOT think we are faking or trying to avoid you. We are simply just trying to survive that day.
10 Tips To Help Ease Life With A Chronic Disease
There are many different kinds of chronic illnesses. That means there are many ways to deal with them, too! These tips may not work for everyone but it is a starting point.
Educate yourself about the disease.
You need to research as much as possible. You can go to the library, or use the Internet. Health organizations have information on specific illnesses and that information helps you understand what is going on in your body.
Choose a health care provider that is right for you.
Making a list of questions to ask before the meeting is important. Questions you might want to ask are:
- This provider works with my health care or medical benefits program. If I go here, I do not have to pay for anything related to that visit.
- For your first appointment, they want to know what has been happening with you. Bring any medical records or scans to the visit so that they can review them and make a better plan for helping you. If there are some medications that have not been working well for you in the past, bring those too!
- How many people with your condition does this doctor see each year?
- What if the primary person is not there? It could be someone from his staff or a student!
Compare treatments and make an informed decision with your health care provider.
When you are living with a chronic illness, it is best to start taking medicine right away. Medicine can slow down the effects of the disease on your body and make it feel better.
Connect with others to build a good support system.
When you are living with a chronic illness, it can be easy to feel lonely. But there are other people who have the same illness as you! Why not join self-help groups in your community or nationwide? This way, you will be able to talk to people who understand what life is like on this side of the struggle.
They may know about resources for treating your disease that isn’t available where you live too. So don’t just rely on Google when searching for answers; ask someone else affected by your diagnosis instead so we can all learn together how best to manage our conditions.
Think about how and when you will tell your family, friends, and colleagues.
When you are sick, it is important to take time for yourself and be honest about how much of your condition you want other people to know. It can get hard when there’s no one in your inner circle who knows what the illness means or has gone through this as well; however if someone does have that experience, they will do their best not only to help ease your burden but also guide on decisions like whether or not to disclose information about the condition.
Take care of yourself through healthy living.
A healthy lifestyle helps you to have a satisfying life. People who are living with a chronic illness will also need medication, but they can still be healthy if they eat well and exercise.
Make wise career choices.
If you know how your company’s policies work, and if you know when it is okay to exercise your rights, then problems will not arise.
Plan for your financial future.
Waiting around without preparing yourself or your loved ones could lead you into trouble if something were ever to go wrong with healthcare. So don’t wait when there are uncertainties facing our future. Waiting may have consequences on us later down the line!
Make your voice heard!
Joining disease advocacy groups is a good thing to do. When you join, you will get information about important issues that are happening in our country. One of the best things for people with chronic diseases is to join and become an activist.
Take a walk
Many nonprofits organize group activities that are both fun and raise money and awareness for their causes.
In the end, I realized that living with a chronic illness has given me a purpose. It’s made me stronger and more determined to live life on my own terms. For every person with a chronic illness who feels lost or alone, know this – you’re not in this battle by yourself; we will fight it together. We have the power to conquer anything if we work hard enough.
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