How to Communicate Your Chronic Illness Struggles to Others
Communication is one of the most important factors in building and maintaining relationships.
Connecting with others by sharing similar interests, values, and hobbies is a great way to strengthen your bond with one another.
What are you supposed to do when you have differences? What if the difference is actually a chronic illness that the other person may not understand fully?
Individuals suffering from chronic illnesses may appear "fine" on the outside, but on the inside, they are often struggling. This can make it very hard to communicate and express themselves, even to close loved ones.
Here's how to communicate your chronic illness struggles to others.
Use Common Language
Chronic illness can make it hard to explain how you feel to others. They may not physically see what you're dealing with, and you may not understand your illness enough to explain it to them. This can make it extremely confusing to express yourself and your needs.
Using common phrases to explain your symptoms can help to streamline your communication, despite not fully understanding or having a grasp on your chronic illness.
Instead of listing out all of your symptoms to try to explain to someone, tell them you're "having a flare-up or that you’re symptomatic." Explain what it is you need and how it is impacting you. You may initially have to explain some of the things about your condition with the hopes that they will understand and remember.
You may find it helpful to send them an article or a link about your condition so that you don’t have to explain it yourself but that the information is there for them to get it.
Communicate Proactively
Living with a chronic illness can make you feel like you're a difficult friend. But that's certainly not the case, especially since you're the one living with it.
Be open and honest. By addressing how you're feeling and what you're thinking, your friends and family will be better able to meet your needs with little to no uncertainty. You may need to tell them that sometimes your symptoms can change very quickly and so that you may have to make a game time decision if you can attend a dinner or night out.
Use a Pain Scale
Similar to using a pain scale at a doctor's office to tell them how you're feeling, you can use the same technique with loved ones. Numbers don't provide that much detail about how you're actually feeling, but it can be a great starting point and simplify things for them so they can be more empathetic to you.
Find a Balance
As with all things in life, finding a balance is crucial. You are not your chronic illness. You only have to talk about your chronic illness when you feel comfortable to do so. You may want to spend time talking about other things and distractions as you spend so much time going to medical appointments. That’s totally okay and maybe that’s how you tell your friends they can support you by talking about other things!
Coaching for Chronic Illness
While coaching can’t cure chronic illness, it can help you feel less alone, and it can help you approach challenges with more confidence.
Chronic illness can be a lonely experience. However, I'm here for you. I'll help you feel heard, seen, and safe, as well as giving you useful strategies for handling real-life situations with intention and confidence.
Contact me here to learn more about how chronic illness coaching can help you!