When you’re living with a chronic illness, a setback or interruption can be incredibly frustrating. It can be hard to focus on the good when you have a flare-up, you’re too tired to do your daily activities, or you feel like you’re back to square one. You’re allowed to feel frustrated, but it’s essential that you get right back on that horse and keep staying positive with these tips.
1. Count Your Blessings
When you have a difficult to manage health condition, it can be hard to see the positives. However, people with chronic illnesses are more able to cherish the small things in life, are typically more motivated to achieve their goals, and are more understanding people. Plus, people with chronic illnesses tend to make better friends that really care about your well-being.
2. You’re a Superhero, If You Really Think About It
Whether you have a chronic illness with prominent flare-ups or you have an embarrassing health condition that causes excessive sweating, you’re managing your illness despite it. For example, people with hyperhidrosis are still looking out for the best deodorants for excessive sweating, and Fibromyalgia patients are still staying active despite their pain. Your resilience is admirable.
While you may not feel like a superhero at your worst, most people could handle what you’re going through at your best. You’re strong, so give yourself some credit for your hard work!
3. Remember: You’re Not Failing
Sometimes an unexpected flare-up of your complex health condition will cause you to take a step back, cancel plans, or take time off school. It can be challenging to take a break while you’re trying to reach your goals, and you may become self-critical when you have to. However, setbacks do not equal failure. You’re human, and sometimes humans just need to survive the day.
4. Find Something The Makes you Happy
It’s important to find something you enjoy that can keep you busy while you wait out the flare-up. Sometimes, there isn’t anything you can do at this moment, but waiting around for the difficult time to stop won’t make it any easier. So instead, start up that hobby that you always wanted to try, but couldn’t, or put your frustration and anger into music, exercising, or creating art.
If you’re in pain or your illness prevents you from doing the thing you love, try something else. This blog post that centers on helping people with chronic illnesses find hobbies can help.
5. Do Something Small for a Loved One or Stranger
When we feel down, it can help to give to someone that needs our help to put our own pain into perspective. That doesn’t mean you should go to a volunteer shelter and compare yourself to someone else because that won’t make you feel any better. However, simply helping a person who needs you can help you feel more positive and give you the strength to tackle tomorrow.
6. Break Down Tasks Into Manageable Steps
After a setback, you may start to get overwhelmed by tasks that now feel out of your grasp, even if they were perfectly manageable in the past. Don’t beat yourself up for this change because you can adjust how you tackle these tasks. While you’re recovering, you don’t have to keep the same busy pace as you used to, but that doesn’t always mean you can’t do anything.
Break your to-do list down into smaller steps and take frequent breaks to maintain your pace. It’s a lot easier to cross off “wash the dishes, wipe the counters” than “clean the house.”
7. Know That the Best is Yet to Come
When managing a chronic illness, it can be hard to see what’s on the other side of a flare-up, but just like the last time this happened, you were able to recover. Even if you didn’t recover fully, you still were able to make your situation more manageable. Keep on believing you can conquer your worst moments because you can, and you will. After this, better moments await you.
