illness

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Saint Patrick’s Day Prayer

In honor of St Patrick’s Day, here’s the Breastplate prayer traditionally attributed to Saint Patrick. You can find the whole prayer online, but here is an excerpt.

I arise today, through

God's strength to pilot me,

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptation of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

afar and near.

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

of the Creator of creation.

May each of you who are suffering know the immense dignity you hold and the peaceful presence of the God who loves you into being. I am praying for you all.

Happy St. Paddy’s!! ☘️

#illness #MentalIllness #Hope

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How to cope when depressed and feel bad about a loved one’s mental health and chronic pain?

I get depressed and unhappy sometimes though I’m trying hard to change my life and do my best I often feel like a loser, I cry and feel negative though I try to be positive, my mom is often the same and worse than me, she struggles with chronic pain, I wish I could help her and sometimes I wish I was someone different a better version of myself, I put myself down and compare myself too much. I feel so lost sometimes :/ :( #selfcomparison #Comparison #loser #Depression #ChronicPain #illness #Health #Family #Parents #lost

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How to cope when your loved ones struggle with chronic pain or illness?

When it’s sad it’s out of your control or you wish they would look after their health a little more push themselves to eat a bit healthier or exercise but they always feel awful and in bad health with many ailments especially my mom. And feel bad about the financial situation since my dad is the breadwinner and my mom got sick pretty young with heart disease and other things. My sister has Ulcerative Colitis etc etc #ChronicPain #mom #mother #Parents #Family #Sickness #illness #Health #eating #MentalHealth

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How do you cope with chronic illness and health issues emotionally and physically?

Thankfully I don’t struggle with a chronic illness or disability but my mom has some and it’s really sad to see her constantly in pain I wish I could help more. How do you cope if you struggle this way as well? 💕💕💕 #chronichealth #healthissues #coping #thriving #illness #question #Disability #Abilities

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Pushing Through The Rough Patches

It seems lately that I keep climbing out of one crises into another. It is exhausting! I’m not sure if it was a gallstone attack or I caught some kind of a intestinal virus; but two weeks ago for 4 days I was in a complete nightmare. If you are in a wheelchair, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Even after the original symptems stopped, the gut cramping and bladder spasms pursisted. I really couldn’t eat anything for another week and it has only been the last 3 or 4 days that I have felt like I’m returning to my normal self.

I have had some really important reminders these past few weeks to the times in my life when I feel like I am pushing through the rough patches of life. It maybe just a reflective post but, I thought I’d share some of the words that have carried me through the survival of the past few days…

Move Slowly

Perhaps the most anguishing of my feelings was that I really don’t have time for this. It seems like I have been putting everything off for so long and I just want to get back at it. Even more truthfully, I am scared that if I stop moving… stop working out, stop driving, stop doing the house work, stop my transfers… I’m going to loose the abilities entirely. Perhaps it is vaniety too but, I also can’t help but feel ashamed at letting people down by not connecting with them or canceling, yet again, a planned visit or speaking engagement. I just don’t want to slow down.

#Disability #illness #MentalHealth #Life

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Pushing Through The Rough Patches

Pushing Through The Rough Patches

It seems lately that I keep climbing out of one crises into another. It is exhausting! I’m not sure if it was a gallstone attack or I caught some kind of a intestinal virus; but two weeks ago…
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My mom sent me this text and I just feel numb

I love my mom and family but it’s very dysfunctional and passively emotionally abusive, it used to be a lot worse during my sucidal attempts and self harming in my teens when the abuse was super bad. I’ve come a long way since but I still have a long way to go but trying my best. I know it’s hard for her to understand but it just hurts, I feel like such a waste of space and a total burden or mistake, just feel pathetic and like trash right now, really hard to be kind to myself right now though I usually try to combat the negative thoughts. Anyways sorry thank you I just don’t have a lot of friends and people that understand disabilities or struggles with mental health. Thanks I’ll just struggling having a really bad anxiety attack and crying might have to call the crisis line a little. My eyes hurt from crying. #MentalHealth #Stigma #illness #Disability #lost #lonely #sad #Burden #alone #Recovery #Trying #TheMighty #help #Advice #SOSAD

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Can people with #MentalHealth issuess keep friendships?

It's just really hard being friends with people with serious #mental #illness . It feels like the friend ship is one side. When they are to #depressed to support you. Sometimes it feels like you put in all the effort into the friendship; #TheMighty #MightyTogether

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Does IT get better ❤️‍🩹

#Recovery #Striving #Surviving #thriving #Hope

So this is for you out there we don’t know what your going through. Today we wanted to say hey IT is what IT is isn’t IT and NO IT is not ok and that is ok. You are allowed to show your feelings you are allowed to express yourself and share your feelings. This is all hard for all of us and we are all extremely tired and exhausted from everything that happened and is happening.

The one message we would like to convey is you are not alone you matter you are important and yes you are worthy!

This is a message of Hope don’t opt-out don’t punch out don’t give up you are so much more then what you are going through.

You never know who your going to help or who will help you we are helping because people have helped us.

ACT DBT CBT EMDR Mindfulness +++++++

Sometimes IT takes so much just to find out what how why when where that you never new or was aware that people care.

You know what get up get out of that toxic fish tank and get into a fight or flight for you as you are the only one that can save you. Sorry tough love we had to say IT.

When you are surrounded by therapy and supports be IT a virtual therapist, peer group or even a volunteer commitment you change the equation of you.

So if you can change the equation you can escape the loop. If you escape the loop you can do so many different things that are good for you.

Look we know this is for someone out there…

Maybe your drinking maybe your smoking maybe your coping just to get to tomorrow using or even being abused. We send our hugs cause you can survive and you can get out. We won’t lie IT is very hard. Sometimes you need a 6 month break that’s an option. Yes you are putting life on hold and yes things may fall apart but is not everything already falling apart if your in this situation? Personally this road has been travelled. The point is don’t give up don’t surrender don’t give in cause you never know who is out there.

Someone needs to hear this message you perhaps or maybe a connection that is going through IT.

We would like to send hugs big hugs cause you can do IT! Yes you can! God Said so with help. So that means you don’t have to do IT alone.

We ask you to consider if you choose your present who can you help? If you choose to continue who will need you to be there for them in there time of need. A total stranger in a store a parking lot walking on a street or even in a support group. Someone somewhere needs you.

We hope this helps someone know you are appreciated you are valued and yes you are missed.

We send #Love #Support #Hugs }{ #ChronicDepression #suside #Anxiety #Addiction #ChrinicPain #Divergent #Diversity #ADHD #ASD #Autism #Fibromyalgia #BackPain #ChronicIllness #MentalHealth #illness

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My Invisible Illness

I would like to open up about my invisible illness. I first realized there was something wrong about six years ago when i came to New Zealand in couple of months I got really sick had this persistent pain in my body and I kept getting this shooting pain from my neck to lower back. My pain became more widespread, more frequent, and more intense when I was at university.

I went to several doctors and specialists had several exams for past 6 years finally I was diagnosed in 2022. The neurologist gave my invisible illness a name Fibromyalgia. I was finally relived they found what actually my illness is however it is a chronic illness which is lifelong and has no cure and also accompanied by chronic fatigue and 100 other symptoms.

Living with fibromyalgia means living with a chronic pain condition that greatly influences daily life. I feel pain all of the time and this affects my ability to do day-to-day tasks.Every task I choose to do has a trade-off with another. For example, if I choose to cook something, doing the laundry becomes more difficult.

As soon as i was diagnosed,I was forced to slow down all my activities both in personal and professional life it had gotten so worse that full right side of my body from neck to feet was in so much pain i could barely move, close my fist or hold a cup or grab the spoon to cook or eat.

Hence i had to make so many changes in my life to gain back strength and mobility slowly back to my body.I had to start taking different medications and therapies with many trials until my doctor found what worked better for me, many meds I was on, messed with my sleeping pattern made me feel nauseous and dizzy whole day and others messed with my stomach lining. I tried to work out because I felt that staying active changing my diet to vegetarian would help me sadly it worsened my symptoms even more. The most challenging aspect of fibro, for me, would be the fatigue, since it prevents me from doing a lot.

Unfortunately, there are not too many medical experts in New Zealand who have done research to understand what I have, and how it affects my daily life. My husband is my number one supporter and he helps me with my stress which is a trigger to pain, but there are also those who don’t understand or care to, so I just distanced myself from those people. I will continue to remove such people from my life, whether blood related or not, if you are not concerned about my wellbeing then I don’t need to have you in my already small circle.

In the last six years there has never been a day my body was without pain. I dont even know how it feels to be without pain anymore. I can’t be on meds 24*7 so i try to get as much rest as possible. As the meds have other side effects which causes other health issues.Honestly, i have tried all the pain killers in the world none of those have ever made my pain go even 20% less . There are times when I feel like nothing works and then i started to research and study on this illness myself.

With my findings and study for months i found out that lifestyle management is the only solution with people who have chromic illness. Since western medicine doesn’t have any cure i studied Ayurveda and gain knowledge around it and observed myself by doing trial and errors with Ayurvedic diet and practising spiritualism as a result to balance and manage my lifestyle Ayurvedic food diet which works for me in subsiding symptoms related to fatigue and stomach lining. Spirituality also really helped me such as meditation and yoga in order to focus on the positivity around me and to push myself to keep fighting with my body in order to live my life to the fullest.

As far as being open about my illness & symptoms, I hate to complain, because I know it can be annoying to hear someone talk about how much pain they are in daily, so I keep it to a minimum. I hate to hear that it will get better, when I know it’s not going to get better because there is no cure. So, I had kept it to myself. Remember to be kind to people as behind that smile we don’t know who is fighting a battle not everyone likes to open up about their struggles. I have had people commenting on my life about gaining weight or not going out or visiting families and friend. Last six years has been a roller coaster ride for me. I have been faking being okay!

My biggest battle is the pain I deal with daily, but the biggest is putting on a brave face, getting up and starting my day and trying to keep up with my daily responsibilities either personally or professionally. There was many moment in my life where i would want to scream at the top of my lungs. I just have no control over this illness that has taken over me and i would want to take my life. Then i look around and see I have family who i love dearly, and one look at them, tells me that my life is important and worth fighting for.

Honestly taking it one day at a time, is how I balance my illness in my personal and professional life, there is no other way. I had always been a high achiever and proceeded to put a lot of pressure on myself in every aspect of my life hence people always say i am lucky whenever i attained my goals whether it was graduating with academic excellence being the top scholar or getting a corporate job at management level or buying a brand new home or travelling around and buying luxury items at early 20s it is not luck it is hard-work sacrifices and most importantly journey of fighting with my own body, health and mind to live life and achieve of my dreams. I just want to say to each one of you if your healthy you are lucky one as Health is Wealth!!

I would like people to know and understand that this condition is real and it’s depressing- please be supportive. If you find that you can’t be of any help to that person suffering from Fibro, then remove yourself from their lives, and spare them further pain.

My words of encouragement for others who are living with Fibro are to try to find a doctor who is caring and believes in your pain, and work with them in finding medication that can help you control some of the pain, because right now, there is nothing that take it all away. Continue fighting, and don’t give up, we have people who need us and depend on us, so we must find a way to fight to continue living. And lastly we should all come together and help us spread the word, and know that you are not alone.

Lastly, this message was not for sympathy it was for awareness in the community which is must needed.
#Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #fibromyalgiawarrior #illness #Fibro #healthiswealth #Bekind #ChronicIllness #symptoms #treatment #RheumatoidArthritis #FibroFog #Medicine

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