Author Nick: LisaCopen
Name: Lisa Copen
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If you have a chronic illness or live with chronic pain, it’s highly likely that you have attended a support group at least one time since your diagnosis. Did the experience go something like this?
Upon the diagnosis of an illness everyone, including your doctor, likely tells you to go to a support group. Research has shown that support groups can be extremely helpful in how one copes with disease. And yet, not everyone finds a group to be the answer to the kind of support for which they are searching. Like any kind of group, there are some support groups you will “click” with and others you will not. So don’t rule out all support groups just because one doesn’t seem like a good fit.
Rest Ministries, the largest Christian organization that specifically serves the chronically ill, recently did a survey and asked people to “List some of the programs or resources a church could offer to make it more inviting comfortable” They have provided a sampling of some of the 800+ responses, all of which could be done in 20 minutes or less.
“You look so good! You can’t be as bad as you say. You look perfectly healthy.” “You think you have fatigue? Try working full-time plus having four children! Then you’ll know what chronic fatigue is.” “I think you’re spending too much time thinking about how you feel. You need to just get out more.” “If you really wanted to get well, you’d at least try that juice drink I gave you last week. It won’t hurt to try it.”
Book Review: “YOU: The Smart Patient: An Insider’s Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment,” by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz
“When I was first diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, I was relieved at first,” shares Cindy. “So many doctors kept telling me to see a psychiatrist, but I knew it was my body, not my head, that was in trouble.” She explains, “I had spent so much time before my diagnosis being mad, having my illness finally validated was a great feeling. But six months later, the anger set in the pain management of the illness seemed to barely exist.”