How To Manage Chronic Illness

Chronic illness and Depression have become somewhere common among the people in recent years. A chronic illness is a condition that cannot be cured completely and is usually tends to last for a very long time. A few illnesses can be controlled or managed by improving your lifestyles or medications but still take last for a long time. Common chronic diseases include Diabetes, Heart Diseases, Kidney Diseases, and HIV, etc.

CHRONIC ILLNESS AND DEPRESSION

The saddest part of these illnesses is that the patients become depressed in these illnesses. Depression is often known as one of the common complications of chronic illness.

The cause and effect relationship between chronic illness and depression can be seen clearly. Serious illness actually can cause many changes to one’s life and limit independence. A chronic illness may be worse enough to make things love to do impossible to be done and thus takes away all the hopes of the future. People suffering from ay chronic illness tend to feel sad often.

Depression also comes as a side effect of medication at times. Thus affecting the patient to a very large extent. Rates of depression in some major chronic illness are as:

• Heart Attack 40-65%
• Cancer 25%
• Diabetes 25%
• Coronary Artery Disease: 18-20%
• Stroke 10-27%

CHRONIC DISEASES

Common chronic diseases include arthritis, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, diabetes, obesity, oral health problems, etc.

Arthritis and related conditions are a few of the main causes that cause disability in the country. Presence of effective interventions has also failed due to their underuse since ages. Regular Exercises have been successful in providing benefits to the people with arthritis as it helps in reducing joint pains and helps in building strong muscles around the joints. It also helps in increasing flexibility in the muscles among the people.

Heart Diseases are the leading cause of death in major countries these days. The main causes of heart diseases are tobacco usage, lack of physical activity, and poor nutrition. These factors need to be taken into a concern to avoid heart diseases with heart disease app.

Cancer ranks second after the heart diseases in the cause of death. Cancer can be controlled by early detection and treatment.

Diabetes, it is serious and very costly. It can only be controlled by early detection, better self-management. It is important to improve the delivery of care to the patient to prevent the burden of diabetes. Reports suggest that around 7 million people aged 65 and older tend to suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

Obesity has become widespread among all the age groups in recent years, including children. Obesity among adults has been reported to be double in recent times. Obese people have high risks of heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some cancers.

Oral Health Problems are often overlooked but are important for general health. They cause pain and a lot of problems like difficulty in speaking, chewing, and swallowing, thus directly affecting the diet intake of a person.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Common Symptoms of chronic illness include:

• Fatigue
• Loss of Memory
• Loss of Concentration
• Sore Throat
• Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
• Unexplained muscle pains
• Headaches
• Unrefreshing Sleep
• Extreme exhaustion
• Depressed Mode
• Weight Loss or Weight Gain
• Apathy
• Thoughts of death and suicide
• Guilt or feeling worthless

DEALING WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS

There are ways of dealing with stress caused due to chronic illness. They are:

• Research about your illness: This can help you feel better about yourself and the illness
• Gain Emotional Support: Support from family and friends can be a source of great help.
• Set some short-term goals: To restore confidence control and certainty
• Think of some possible outcomes: Discuss with your doctor and find the outcomes possible and be prepared to face them before they actually happen.

Understand your medication. Research about the medicines you need to take. Review the medicines time-to-time from your doctor to make sure that they are appropriate. Make sure you keep yourself up to date with your medicines and take them on time. Pill Reminder is a method that you can adapt to keep a record of taking your pills. From the day, the time to which pill to take, pill reminders assist you by being a helping hand in keeping your healthy.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is necessary while living in a chronic condition. From eating well to doing a lot of physical exercises, it is important to maintain a healthy diet.

In order to maintain a healthy diet:

• Have a small amount of food at regular intervals rather than heavy meals.
• Choose nutritious foods that you like having
• Avoid fatty snack food

Sleep is yet another important factor for keeping yourself healthy. The given ways can help you get enough sleep:

• Avoid day time naps.
• Avoid excessive bed rest
• Avoid stimulants
• Prefer exercising during the day

Above all, it is also important to take care of your mental health. Thinking negatively always adds to the anxiety or stress of the person. A few steps that can be taken to reduce worrying and stress include:

• Note down your concerns and consequences if you feel like worrying.
• Research about the information and all its possible outcomes. This helps one in feeling better by providing better knowledge about tackling a particular problem .
• Seek help from a psychologist if needed. Sharing can help you in feeling better about your worries.
• Focus on a variety of things and keep yourself busy. Do challenging activities and make time to read, walk, and go everything that makes you happy or give you peace of mind.

Thus, though Chronic Illness and Depression go hand in hand, it is necessary to manage chronic illness as it affects the person both mentally and physically. A number of sources are present that can help you in keeping yourself balanced, mentally, and physically fit while suffering from any chronic illness. Following the steps mentioned above can also effective help in managing chronic illness and leading a healthy life.