“I refuse to smash my emotions down inside myself so I can put on a happy face and make other people feel better. I will not pretend like I have learned a fantastic lesson when my body and my life are falling apart in this moment — I need time to cry and scream into a damn pillow,” says patient advocate Jennifer Walker.
By CreakyStaff
People often think of stress relief as yoga or journaling — but our patient community shared that their furry friends are perhaps the best remedy for managing the emotional and physical ups and downs of living with a chronic illness.
Our psoriasis warriors and mental health experts agree: You can't control the stares, but you can control your reaction and how you choose to respond.
The unpredictable nature of chronic illness can make staying confident a challenge — but these patient-approved confidence boosters can help you hold your head up higher.
Taking care of mental health may be important for achieving relief from rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, and in turn, feeling better may help improve your mood and emotions.
Patient advocate Zoe Rothblatt gets real about chronic pain — and how to take the power back when pain-free days mess with your emotions.
Researchers suspect inflammation may play a key role in both depression and psoriatic arthritis.
We’ve all had that moment when we’ve left the doctor’s office and realized we forget to ask a question or bring a topic. Here’s what patients and doctors say you can do about it.
By CreakyStaff
These inspiring insights, usually learned the hard way, are the perfect reminder to treat yourself to self-love today — and every day.
There are many benefits of journaling for people with chronic illness, but what if arthritis or painful joints are making it hard to make this self-help activity a habit?
Living with a chronic illness, such as rheumatic disease, can make you feel like your body is out to get you. We asked mental health experts and patients to share what helps when you feel betrayed by your body.
Living with a chronic illness can feel completely overwhelming. These tips can help ease these feelings so you can have the headspace to control what you can.
It’s been a journey for Jennifer Walker to figure out that anxiety and related depression was no longer something they could manage with self-care alone. Here’s how they’re getting help and moving forward.
A new study from the ArthritisPower research registry found that following a mindfulness therapy program may help patients with rheumatic diseases, like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, decrease their anxiety and stress levels.
Mood disorders commonly coexist with chronic physical health ailments, and new research suggests depression and anxiety might make it harder for PsA patients to achieve minimal disease activity (MDA).
A new study found that cognitive behavioral talk therapy may treat sleep issues in people dealing with osteoarthritis and insomnia.
By Susan Jara
People with chronic pain from arthritis and other conditions may be at an increased risk of having suicidal thoughts and behavior. Learn more about this link and when and how to get help.
More research is needed to understand why mental health conditions are linked to low “medication persistence” — the amount of time from starting to stopping a medication.
When conditions like arthritis and chronic pain cause pain, disability, and other physical changes to your body, it’s natural for self-esteem to dip. Here’s what other patients report about their experience coping with changes to their identity and body image.
When treatment for inflammatory arthritis escalates, so does the risk of depression and anxiety — and there are many possible explanations for this link.
But it’s not entirely clear whether being unemployed, perhaps due to arthritis-related disability, leads to depression, or whether having depression and arthritis increases the risk of unemployment.
According to study authors, ‘psychological treatments that combine a focus on increasing valued activity with improving inflammatory arthritis patients’ mindfulness could be useful for reducing fatigue-related disability.’
By Tina Donvito
CBT is rooted in the idea that the way you perceive situations influences the way you feel, and that you have the ability to change your thought patterns to feel better.
By Dibs Baer
‘I’m no Perfect Pollyanna. But I just don’t want the experience of living with a chronic illness — I’ve had RA for more than a decade — to be negative 24/7.’
This advice from Laurie Ferguson, PhD, clinical psychologist and Director of Education Development at the Global Healthy Living Foundation, can help you process all of the emotions you’re feeling right now to help you fight anxiety and feel more in control.
Writing can help us admit to our feelings, accept our fear, manage our anxiety, and move through serious trauma.
This advice from Laurie Ferguson, PhD, clinical psychologist and Director of Education Development at the Global Healthy Living Foundation, can help reduce anxiety and stress.
By Dibs Baer
Several studies also show that depression and chronic illness feed off each other in the worst ways.
This advice from mental health experts and fellow patients could help prevent a bad day from become a bad week, month, or worse.
Geography, sex, and sexual orientation seemed to affect mental health too.
‘It soon became pretty clear that if I did not start listening to my sick body now, I would pay dearly for it later.’
Widespread inflammation could may be the connecting factor between depression and autoimmune conditions such as RA.
Overwhelming feelings of worry and dread are common among people with arthritis, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with them.
Stress and arthritis can be a vicious cycle. Any one of these tips can help you improve your stress management and coping strategies.
Eileen Davidson wasn’t prepared for the emotional and mental health roller coaster that followed her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. Here’s what she learned along the way.
There’s a strong connection between arthritis and depression, but this advice can help protect your mental health.
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