The Mighty Logo

To the Person With Chronic Illness Who Is Impatient to Get Better

The most helpful emails in health
Browse our free newsletters

“It would be nice to get better by the end of the year.” This is a thought that resurfaces within my mind quite a fair bit. While others may be making resolutions for the new year, those who are chronically ill can be bound to unpredictability and usually make plans on a daily basis instead.

“What can I do to get there?” Then it struck me that to get better this year meant getting better today.

Perhaps that little thing you did for yourself today — be it 10 minutes of light exercise, improving one aspect of your diet, getting an extra spot of shut eye, or just sitting down to regulate your thoughts — feels as if it made no overall impact.

I know how that feels because I often become frustrated, thinking that my present action is too insignificant to even cause a dent in the colossal problem before me. Or I get a little impatient, wondering what I have to do next, not now. I want to see immediate results, which doesn’t make any sense because everything takes time to manifest.

So this is a gentle reminder to be patient with myself — and that things done for the good of your own well-being never go to waste, whether it is a big, small or unseen contribution. Keep getting better today, my friend!

And because I think quotes are great little reminders when placed somewhere within sight, I’ve created a few visual quote cards. Feel free to click on the quotes below to download or print them out for your own use!

Follow this journey on A Chronic Voice.

The Mighty is asking the following: What’s the hardest thing you deal with as someone with a chronic illness, and how do you face this? What advice and words of support would you offer someone facing the same thing? If you’d like to participate, please send a blog post to community@themighty.com. Please include a photo for the piece, a photo of yourself and 1-2 sentence bio. Check out our Submit a Story page for more about our submission guidelines.

Originally published: March 24, 2016
Want more of The Mighty?
You can find even more stories on our Home page. There, you’ll also find thoughts and questions by our community.
Take Me Home