There are a lot of people out there in the world who have some gross misconceptions about chronic illnesses: whether they are real, whether they are serious, how treatable they are. Let me assure you that chronic illnesses are very real, that many of them are deadly serious, and not all of them are very treatable.
So What Are Chronic Illnesses?
The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion defines chronic illnesses, or diseases, as "conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both." CDC
The US National Library of Medicine, through Medline, defines them as "a chronic illness is a long-term health condition that may not have a cure." Medline
Basically, chronic illnesses hit and then stick around. Sometimes you can treat them and go into remission, and sometimes they stick around forever. While the understanding of chronic illnesses is expanding, there is still way too much that the scientific world doesn't know about them. And they are becoming all too common in this day and age.
What Kinds of Illnesses Are We Talking About?
Here is a list (not comprehensive) of some chronic illnesses:
- Cancers
- Cardiovascular diseases, including cerebrovascular disease, heart failure, and ischemic cardiopathy
- Chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Diabetes mellitus (type 1, type 2, pre-diabetes, gestational diabetes)
Other examples of chronic diseases and health conditions include:
- Alzheimer's disease
- Atrial fibrillation
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Autoimmune diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, lupus erythematosus, Crohn's disease, coeliac disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and relapsing polychondritis
- Autism or Asperger's Syndrome
- Blindness
- Cerebral palsy (all types)
- Chronic graft-versus-host disease
- Chronic hepatitis
- Chronic kidney disease
- Chronic osteoarticular diseases, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
- Chronic pain syndromes, such as post-vasectomy pain syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome
- Dermatological conditions such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis
- Deafness and hearing impairment
- Ehlers–Danlos syndrome (various types)
- Endometriosis
- Epilepsy
- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
- Fibromyalgia
- HIV/AIDS
- Huntington's disease
- Hypertension
- Mental illness
- Migraines
- Multiple sclerosis
- Myalgic encephalomyelitis (a.k.a. chronic fatigue syndrome)
- Narcolepsy
- Obesity
- Osteoporosis
- Parkinson's disease
- Periodontal disease
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
- Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
- Sickle cell anemia and other hemoglobin disorders
- Substance Abuse Disorders
- Sleep apnea
- Thyroid disease
Also:
- Asthma
- IBS
- Food allergies
Looking at this list, you definitely know people who have one or more of these conditions. And these aren't even all the chronic illnesses that people can get. Many chronic illnesses still don't have diagnoses or proper names, but they still negatively and permanently affect peoples' lives. Many of them can be helped with dietary changes, exercise, healthy sleep patterns, and stress management. Many of them can be helped with medications. But not all.
If you take the time to look up some of these diseases (I left the links to wikipedia intact, just as a launching point into studying; definitely don't just rely on wikipedia), you will find that some commonalities exist between illnesses. Fatigue, pain, lack of sleep, memory failure, brain fog, digestive issues, and mood swings plague those with chronic illnesses. It is a completely different kind of life from the average healthy person. It can be excruciating, terrifying, and totally life altering. While many of these illnesses are preventable, many more still aren't. People can actually go from completely healthy one day to immobilized with pain or sickness the next.
It's easy to find help with some of these conditions, but some of them require medical costs that can quickly become insupportable to maintain. Sometimes it takes years to receive the right diagnosis. Sometimes one can never get medical professionals to take it seriously enough to even start getting the right help. Often, insurance won't cover your illness even with mountains of documentation.
There are so many different nuances that go into diagnosing and caring for chronic illnesses that it's exhausting for many chronically ill people to even do the research to find the right kind of medical help. Because most of us still have to work in order to provide for ourselves, we don't always have the energy to take care of our medical needs, which further drives us down the rabbit hole of poor health. It is terrifyingly easy to have our medical problems take over our lives completely.
Our current system isn't chronic illness friendly. We have to work to afford the medical bills, but because we have to work, our conditions worsen, oftentimes severely. Work also leaves less time to take care of ourselves (you know, getting that exercise in, plus shopping for good foods and getting enough sleep). It's a horrible, vicious cycle. Work places are not accommodating. Schools are not accommodating. Our own families reject us, demanding more of us than we can give.
In Conclusion
Chronic illnesses are very real.
They affect people that you, personally, know.
They don't make anyone less worthy of love and support. In fact, people with chronic illnesses need MORE love and support, not less.
The system we live in needs to change so that people with chronic illnesses don't have to destroy themselves just to live.
Take the time to study up on chronic illnesses, especially the ones that your friends and family have. See what you can do to help them out, especially when they trust you enough to be vulnerable enough to confide in you. Listen to them and their needs. And then follow through with what you tell them. Don't assume that you know how to help them better than they know how to help themselves. Just listen and love.
That's all I've got the energy for right now. I promise I'll work on getting these out more often again. Love you all!
Cheers~
