When you are diagnosed with a chronic illness, the doctor might give you an overview of the common symptoms associated with your illness, but often these are physical manifestations – pain, fatigue, swelling, even brain fog. Many of us are then surprised by all of the emotional side effects that accompany our illness. For me, the many years I spent being very ill but undiagnosed triggered the onset of depression and anxiety. I felt alone, scared, and judged by my friends at school who didn’t understand why I sat out during P.E. every day.
Even though many of us experience a significant change in our mental and emotional state after developing a chronic illness, we’re not always given the same run-down of potential emotional side effects as we are physical ones. Doctors may prescribe various medications to treat bodily symptoms, but what about our thoughts, our feelings, our relationships, our identities? In order to get a better understanding of how chronic illness can affect a person as a whole, we asked our community to share the emotional symptoms or side effects of illness that surprised them.
Here’s what the community told us:
1. “The guilt. I feel guilty for being sick. I have no control over it, it’s not my fault, and yet it crushes me. My illness affects everyone around me.”
2. “The constant merry-go-round of feelings, going between acceptance, depression and anger. Accepting there will be always days when you just wake up sad or angry about it all.”
3. “Grief. You feel an immense sense of loss for your old self and all your previous capabilities. It feels like you have had your life robbed from you, so you essentially go into a state of mourning.”
4. “Grumpiness! I used to pride myself on emotional awareness and self-control, but lately I find myself irritable and snappy. It happens when I’m in a lot of pain or discomfort, and when I’m having sensory sensitivity issues. I’m learning to see it coming before I snap at someone I love.”
5. “Shock. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have much time to process what was happening to me. I came to terms with my mortality.”
And many more...