What is that beast?
Is your relationship tested by chronic illness?
My marriage certainly is…
Most people think that the meaning of “in sickness and in health” means getting cancer at the age of 80. The reality is that life doesn’t always go the way we plan…
When your partner develops a long-term illness like endometriosis or fibromyalgia, she may feel like she has entered a new world in which all the rules of life. It makes her feel helpless.
But there are many things that you can do to help her gain a sense of control and improve her well-being. To begin with, you need to start looking at how long-term illness is different from short-term illness and terminal illness.
- Short-term or acute illness is a temporary problem that usually ends because of medical treatment or when some amount of time passes.
- Terminal illness, however, is a life-threatening condition.
- Chronic illness lays somewhere between…
Perhaps when you first learn about endometriosis or fibromyalgia, you may feel confused. It is not a short-term condition, it doesn’t seem like a terminal illness either (although it could be when you take suicide into account). So what is it?
She is confronted by neither a temporary interruption of her life, nor a life-threatening condition, but she finds over time the third type of illness – an illness that is prolonged, chronic, an illness that has no endpoint, neither it is fatal.
She can’t resume her previous life. It isn’t a short interruption or a struggle with a terminal illness. She faces having to adjust to long-term symptoms and plenty of limitations.
Endometriosis and fibromyalgia, or any chronic illness for that matter imposes limits and brings symptoms that persist, but there is more to it…
Not only chronic illness affects the person who suffers, it also touches many aspects of your life as a partner.
It affects her ability to work, but not only hers, it affects your job too. Your relationship, your mood, your hopes and dreams for the future, and even your sense of who you both are.
Chronic illness is hard to manage because living with endometriosis or fibromyalgia is like having a third person in your relationship. It is much more than just the management of symptoms.
Chronic illness impacts many aspects of your partner’s life. Chronic illness reduces your partner’s activity level, but if she tries to do more than her body can take, she is going to experience more severe symptoms and pain.
Let your story be heard!
Suffering from chronic illness is a full-time job. The reason for this is that people must constantly assess if they are managing their health in the best way possible.
This ongoing decision-making makes up a major part of their life and turns out to be a full-time job!
The reality of living with an invisible illness seems impossible to describe. But there is a way of doing so – put it in writing.
This is why I started this blog, to raise awareness about my wife and gazillions of other people struggling with being noticed or heard. Sometimes it’s easier to say it with the written word.
Write your story and get it published on our blog!
Regardless of chronic illness, either physical or mental, people don’t believe something they cannot see.
While they can never truly understand the day-to-day struggles of a person with an invisible illness, you can show them by writing your heart out.
You can do it regardless of whether you are the one who suffers or the one who supports her!
It will help to open their eyes to what you are going through.
Worry Head is a safe place to express your thoughts, regardless of who you are.
Besides, writing is medicine for your mind.
Whenever either of you feels exhausted mentally or emotionally, writing things down will help you structure your thoughts and bring peace to your mind.
Many therapists recommend investing time in writing every day to improve mental well-being.
Write your invisible illness story in your own words and send it to us in any format you want to worryheadstory@email.com.
