Coping

Accepting that you have a chronic pain syndrome, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia, and any other chronic disease, can be a long and daunting process.

Learning to cope with a chronic disease is difficult, but it's an important step and valuable journey that is worth taking when faced with a chronic illness.  Managing, coping and learning to deal with your condition will allow you to live a good life in spite of this condition.  Psychologists and patients report various stages that people must undergo in order to accept these conditions.  This article will run through methods others have used when in similar situations.

The key to coping with fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue is accepting that the problem is chronic, meaning, it's not going away.  You must learn how to minimize the pain, and finding the good things within a painful life. The reality is that the pain may exist for a long time, or it may never go away. The challenge is to learn how to reduce the pain and create a good life beyond the condition.

Patients often report the following as being the most difficult issues with regards to chronic illness.  Starting with these may reward you with the most to gain, and aim you towards a positive lifestyle in lieu of the fact of your chronic illness:

• depression
• hopelessness
• pain
• loss of identity
• self-confidence
• feelings of abnormality