One of the biggest emotional issues that the people around us can’t seem to understand is how becoming chronically ill feels like losing your old life and your old self.
It’s one of those big, intensely personal catastrophic events where you can clearly see and describe how you used to be and how you are now, the before and the after when everything changed for you.
And it’s not just the loss of your old self and life though that is hard enough to deal with.
It’s the loss of your future and the life you thought you were going to have, the things you thought you would get to do and the loss of living in a fully functioning and reliable body.
It’s also a loss that very few people can understand and a grief that is ongoing.
In this episode, I will walk you through what this grief is, why it happens and explain why it’s so difficult to have it validated or accepted by others.
Let’s talk about how it really feels to lose your old life and self to chronic illness and what it means for you.
Season 3, Episode 2. Moving through the grief of chronic illness.