Wait! How to COPE with the emotional impact of chronic illness is different for everyone?

I’d like to give you an easy list of How To’s that move you to the place you never have problems, but it’s not that simple. Lying to you won’t help.

I can only give you the tools I’ve used to move the needle for me.

Emotional Impacts:

Coping with the emotional impacts of chronic illness requires help. 

I began my journey with Epilepsy in the fourth grade. No one knew what to do. I felt ugly, unseen and suddenly less than. No one knew how it felt … at least that’s how I felt!

My Dad told me God spoke to His children. I held onto that because no one else was talking WITH me on my level and I didn’t know who else to talk to.  So, I sat on my bed and talked to a God whose voice I couldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure, yet, if He really cared.

To be honest, I didn’t know if I wanted to hear him. I was afraid of what He would say. But, I also knew I was on my own in so many ways and I wanted my body put back together.  I had questions too.

The answers I wanted weren’t attainable. I continued to sit on my bed and wait in silence. So much silence. Often things don’t happen quite like we plan.

HEALING: comes in many forms

I would have healed my body in haste and then gone out for a celebratory dinner. God’s ways are not mine (that’s what I’d learned in Sunday School). But, was it right?

The thing I knew, was that he had been there consistently, reminding me I wasn’t alone, even though I was fighting him. That was then.

YEARS PASSED … I changed, but God was still there.

Hope should not take from you. 

Placing trust in what can vanish can destroy you.  

Your health is finite.  

Work is temporary. 

Families experience loss.  

The world changes in a moment. 

I lost my health, my job and my son.

Each one was a blow, a new vision leading to the revelation that my hope did not belong there. Each required a new level of emotional coping with my chronic illness.

People kept asking why I kept pressing on and how I was resilient in the face of these things I had experienced. Truth: I never feel very resilient.

There’s only one real answer: Jesus shows up and I believe Him. Every seizure I have He is with me.  He hasn’t failed me yet. Coping emotionally, for me, means resting in what He can do that I can’t. 

I want to avoid life trials, but when was that a possibility? Instead, I realize now God has more to do in me through pain than the pain has ability to hurt me. Every time it seems I’m losing, I win. Coping emotionally with a chronic illness has meant giving up control. I’ve been alive long enough now to see a pattern. God makes what we think is ugly, beautiful. When you see it, you’re willing to experience more of it if necessary. I will be okay, whatever happens.

If your emotions are getting the best of you consider that perhaps it’s not just you. Your body, mind and spirit are all connected and when you’re not getting enough of something physically you can crumble emotionally. Try these things first:

+Get some sunshine (we’re inside way too much and you need your vitamin D)

+ Drink more water (Did you know you can only go 3 days without)

+ Eat good food (How many times, be honest, have you eaten fast food this week?)

If you’re not taking care of yourself spiritually, none of these things are really going to matter because you are a spirit being having a physical experience.

I realize all of that seems simple and silly when you’re struggling hard, but we have to start somewhere and the smaller that first hurdle is, the better.

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