Heart disease. Cancer. Diabetes. Vision impairment. What do all these issues have in common? None of them have cures, despite the fact that all of them can be lived with. Still, no one wants to, which makes any of these diagnoses a shock to our system. And along with it comes a significantly increased risk of situational depression.
Looking ahead to the rest of our lives, few of us imagine spending years or decades trying to maintain our quality of life while simultaneously managing the symptoms and treatment plans involved in chronic physical health concerns. Faced with this reality, depressive symptoms can set in that begin to rob us of the joy and happiness we otherwise anticipated.
While many people believe that mental illness is not situational, that’s not entirely true. If you lost a loved one three days ago, no one would question your sadness. But if you are still experiencing that same level of sadness 30 years after the fact, the toll taken on your mental health might cause concern. Because these chronic physical health issues don’t go away, their emotional toll might not either. But that does not mean that treatment isn’t called for. Counseling and therapy at any stage in a grieving process – whether that grieving is for a loved one or for a cancer diagnosis – can provide us with the tools that we need to cope with our reality.
If someone you love is dealing with a chronic health diagnosis, or even just the difficulty of adapting to the aches and pains that commonly appear later in life, consider reaching out to a local mental health practitioner to discuss how to prepare.
