You recently find yourself with a chronic illness diagnosis. For months the symptoms you are dealing with finally reach a head and a health care provider gives a name to what you are feeling. The first question that you must ask is: “How to live right side up when you feel upside down?”.
Many chronic pain sufferers find themselves living what was considered a normal life for themselves to be thrown upside down with their diagnoisis. The life that you once had is flipped and your current situation no longer seems familiar to you. Flipping your mind mentally to grasp what this new life means for you is important. I share about making a mental adjustment to your diagnosis here if you want to read more. Today we look at how do you choose to live right side up in this upside down world?
Incorporate Your Community
The first key to living right side up when you feel upside down is to incorporate your community. Your family or good friends arise as the community then you need to educate them on the new you with this chronic illness. This journey of education may be one that you walk through together as you discover what chronic illness looks like. Often we find like minded groups of community online like a Facebook community. Friends who are sharing in similar struggles with chronic illness like yours can help you educate yourself. When you clearly communicate to the loved ones your experiences then they are aware of where grace is needed.
Fatigue is a battle that I am constantly fighting so I have learned my personal limits and how to say “No”. This awareness of my limits allows me to share with my husband and children my need for rest before I am past due for a time out. The key for me was learning to first realize that I needed help and had to set my boundaries.
Key Two for Living Right Side Up When You Feel Upside Down
The second key to how to live right side up is knowing your boundaries. Once we are diagnosed with chronic illness then we begin to learn where our stopping point needs to begin. This lesson is a hard one for me personally to incorporate into my life. I lean into the guide of my husband who sees my calendar and knows my physical limits with fibromyalgia. Oftentimes, in the earlier days of my diagnosis I would ask Philip before I committed myself to another activity. As our children were younger, it meant to honor his schedule and calendar because it meant he would be the pinch hitter if I overcommitted myself. Now that we are older, I adjust new symptoms so I lean in to his guidance. He knows my limits and can speak that truth for me. When we find balance in our every day commitments, and activities then we are freer to manage our symptoms well.
Upside Down Living with Changing Symptoms
Fibromyalgia is an ever changing illness for me. One week I find myself with chronic pain one trigger point and the next month the pain shifts to another place. It is also an illness that has new symptoms that crop up over the lifetime of having the disease. Insomnia is one of the things that comes to mind for me. In the early days, pre-diagnosis with fibro, I often had bouts of insomnia. Then the fatigue days would rule my upside down world for a season. Over the years, my insomnia moments have leveled out. Fatigue is often a cyclical thing for me as well.
Chronic illness patients have to learn to live right side up in an upside down world by being able to manage ever changing symptoms. We can not be sidelined for long periods of time when a new symptom takes over our world. So many times we find that we were just learning to manage the last set of symptoms. Now we have a new set to deal with in this chronic illness life. The need for balance above overwhelm is important.
Living Right Side Up When You Feel Upside Down
In order to begin a successful way of living right side up when you feel upside down, we see three keys for starting. The first key for upright living is to incorporate your community. Communicate to your people and help them know best how to help you. The second key to right side up living is knowing your boundaries. Once a person with chronic illness becomes aware of the new life with ever changing symptoms then you help educate those around you to set those boundaries for living your best life. Lastly the best way to live right side up when you feel upside down is to learn to be flexible and manage those changing symptoms. Share in the comments with us how you make living right side up when life feels upside down.