HOW CHRONIC ILLNESSES MAKE YOU FEEL LONELY.

The past 5, nearly 6, years has showed me how lonely I can feel because of chronic illnesses. It comes and goes in waves, usually when I am in the middle of a flare-up with but it sometimes also hits me when I am having a more manageable day. Throw in a pandemic we are already a year in and that enhances these feelings to the point of it becoming damaging.

I’ve previously spoken about how chronic illnesses change relationships (any relationship you have) which obviously impacts and adds to the feeling of loneliness. You don’t feel like you can talk about the pain you’re experiencing because you feel as though you are a burden. You already feel you are a burden just by having these chronic conditions so talking about your pain seems like it will add fuel to the fire. You feel isolated and that there isn’t anyone who can understand the way you’re feeling, even though there are so many people trying to manage the same conditions as you. Then, when you have people around you who don’t take the time to try and understand what you are going through, you feel even more lonely and like you are an added pain in the lives of others.

Now having been dealing with a pandemic for a year, which has massively impacted health services and a lot of support for those with chronic illnesses, it has just emphasised the feelings of loneliness and isolation. A year with restricted access to the support that you need has been a completely exhausted challenge and I’m sure many people can agree with that. Flare-ups are happening more frequently and for longer, you are limited in ways to help manage your pain and even more limited to ways in which to distract yourself from everything that is going on. You’re stuck in this loop of feeling like utter crap because your pain is becoming more unmanageable and then a loop of poor mental health because of not being able to do much to get the hep you need. You’re stuck on who you can actually talk to about your pain, you’re doubting yourself because you can’t say if your added pain is because of your physical conditions getting worse or the fact that a pandemic has impacted on your already crap mental health. 

Where do you go from here? 

A question I’ve been asking myself recently.