“The hardest part of living with a chronic illness is the constant fear of the unknown. No matter how well you may feel for a little while, you can become completely unable to do anything in a matter of seconds. It's so debilitating physically and mentally.”
Chronic illness can also influence your ability to work. You might have to change the way you work to cope with morning stiffness, decreased range of motion and other physical limitations. If you aren't able to work, you might have financial difficulties. If you're a homemaker, your work may take much longer to do.
Living with or experiencing a chronic illness can result in many adjustments and changes, such as loss of independence and not being able to do all the active things you used to do or usually enjoy. Anxiety and depression are common in people with chronic physical illness.
Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.
The experience of illness itself may have a negative impact on people's self-concept, as they experience such things as pain, discomfort, changes in appearance and a loss of control over their own bodies.
“Chronic illness burnout is a stress response to the particular experience of being overwhelmed by the responsibilities of managing appointments, insurance, financial stressors, while juggling life responsibilities, all while experiencing physical discomfort,” she said.
Chronic Illness as a Cause of Psychological Trauma
Similarly, medical diagnosis of illness or disease, such as cardiovascular issues, lung disease, cancer, or autoimmune diseases, can be traumatic and lead to PTSD.
Four personal behaviors that can affect chronic diseases are: lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol use.
A Reflection on the 5C's of Integrated Health: Care, Collaboration, Cost, Community and Culture.
You may experience various stages of grief including denial, bargaining, anger, and sadness. You may feel you're on a roller coaster of emotion—accepting one day and angry the next. It may help to remind yourself that these feelings are normal, and will likely ease with time.
Results: Life expectancy decreases with each additional chronic condition. A 67-year-old individual with no chronic conditions will live on average 22.6 additional years.
Being burned out means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don't see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress feels like you're drowning in responsibilities, burnout is a sense of being all dried up.
The significance is that many common chronic illnesses carry with them an increased risk of cognitive impairment, which increases with age. Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension are associated with vascular dementia through impairment of circulation to the brain.
Having a family member with a chronic illness can impact the daily activities of family members in the following ways: Feeling a burden from caring for the person. Feeling like they don't have time or freedom for themselves or their own interests. Having to rearrange their schedules to accommodate doctor's appointments.
Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death at the global level for the last 20 years. However, it is now killing more people than ever before. The number of deaths from heart disease increased by more than 2 million since 2000, to nearly 9 million in 2019.
A chronic disease, also known as a non-communicable disease, is a long-lasting and often progressive health condition such as arthritis, cancer, respiratory disease, heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Burden of disease measures the impact of living with disease and injury, and premature death.
Poor nutrition, including diets low in fruits and vegetables and high in sodium and saturated fats. Physical inactivity. Excessive alcohol use.