Coping With Illness

“Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.” - Marcel Proust

Australia in August is flu and cold season. Dealing with illness is a commonality we all face, more so if you work with children who tend to get everything.  What are the key skills to implement during these challenging times?

Attitude
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” - William James 

Attitude is an umbrella term that consists of our opinions, emotions, perceptions, beliefs, expectations, values, and intentions.  When it comes to coping with illness, the most essential ingredient in the recipe for coping with illness is attitude.  One’s attitude is multidimensional.  Attitude is obviously about staying positive, but what are the other crucial components of attitude?

Stay Positive
Positive thinking is about stress management.  When coping with illness you are more prone to being in stress mode.  According to the Mayo Clinic (1):
Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:
•    Increased life span
•    Lower rates of depression
•    Lower levels of distress and pain
•    Greater resistance to illnesses
•    Better psychological and physical well-being
•    Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
•    Reduced risk of death from cancer
•    Reduced risk of death from respiratory conditions
•    Reduced risk of death from infections
•    Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

In flying, pilots talk about level flight as normal.  However, when a student pilot climbs or loses altitude while trying to maintain level flight, we say they have a bad attitude.  In aviation attitude is altitude control.  This same example applies to your health challenges.

When you stay level headed you will have an appropriate attitude.  When you are irregular and uneven your attitude will not be helpful.  In fact, it will slow or impede your recovery.  Level headed equals level flight.

“Anybody can pilot a ship when the sea is calm.” - Navjot Singh Sidhu 

Stay Calm
When facing illness, we may become more anxious.  This is normal since anxiety is about facing the unknown.  Anxiety starts with shallow breathing.  When breathing less deeply, we wash out our carbon dioxide.

This wash out makes it hard to get oxygen back into our body.  To get oxygen back into our body we need to breathe in and out of a paper bag.

We are now getting our depleted carbon dioxide back, which allows us to get our oxygen back.  Control your breathing to stay calm.

Listen and Learn
Losing your health involves major feelings of a loss of control.  Unless you are a medical doctor with expertise in your health issue, you will need to relinquish control to superior knowledge.  

Consider this experience to be a learning opportunity.  Listen and learn not unlike you would when attending a personal health workshop.

“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.” - Anton Chekhov 

Trust
Trust is built or eroded based on our lifetime experiences.  To own trust in the moment, we must separate our past experiences from our present experience.

Your past mistrust issues have the potential to sabotage your ability to trust in the present. By staying with your trust during treatment and recovery you will solidify a positive attitude and stay calm.  Staying in the present and avoiding the past will assist your ability to regain your health.

Cooperate Fully
Health professionals are only human.  They will be sensitive to clients that do not cooperate with their instructions.  They will provide you better care and make you transition back to health easier with your cooperation.

This does not imply that you cannot ask questions or seek clarity in your diagnosis or treatment.  Health professionals are there for you.  They want you to understand and be clear on what they are doing to help you heal and return to good health.

Communicate Accurately
Good client communication is just as important as the communication from doctors or nurses.  The most proficient way to receive proper health care is to be as complete and transparent in communicating your symptoms as possible.  

Don’t hold back and say you are okay when you are not.  As a psychologist, I see this holding back of information as the primary reason so many clients do not get the help they need.

“Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.” Aristotle

Handling Adversity
Most of us have a history of handling adversity in some area of our life experience.  Try to recall how you were successful in the past at overcoming adversity in life.  The chances are that the very strategies you utilized in the past will have some relevance to how you can successfully navigate your current health issues.  You do not always have to reinvent the wheel.

Positivity Is Contagious
By having a positive attitude toward your health challenges, many of the key skills mentioned above will follow automatically.  Just like a flow experience in sport, business, or life, your positive attitude will trigger the key elements required for your healthy recovery.     

Reference
1 Mayo Clinic (2023).  Positive thinking: Stop negative self-talk to reduce stress. November, 21, 2023

Dr Bruce Wilson is a psychologist with over 30 years of experience. He enjoys sharing his ramblings with friends and colleagues. He is currently in private practice at Mind Health Care in Geelong, Someone Health in Sydney,  and Hoppers Psychology in Hoppers Crossing. This article is solely his work.