I was just diagnosed with a chronic illness…now what?

A diagnosis can bring with it a myriad of emotions. You might feel relieved to finally have language to use to describe the experience you’ve been having of your body. You might be feeling grief or sadness, especially if this diagnosis confirms that you have an illness that you’ll live with for the rest of your life. You might be feeling angry that you weren’t diagnosed sooner or that you had to jump through so many medical hoops. However you’re feeling, leaving the doctor’s appointment with a diagnosis in hand, it can be hard to know what to do next. There are lots of ways to approach the next steps, but here are a few things I’ve found helpful.

Do some research. If you sought out your diagnosis, you might already know a lot about the condition. If your doctor brought it to you and you don’t know much about it, spending a little time getting familiar with the condition will be helpful. In particular, what are the symptoms? What are the common treatments? What do you need to be aware of? Sometimes this research will lead to new words or phrases that you haven’t encountered. If you don’t know what something related to your illness means, google, your doctor and others with your illness can support deeper learning.

Find community. For most illnesses, you won’t be the only one in the world who has it. Medical professionals can support with diagnosis and treatment, but aren’t always plugged into the full scope of the patient experience. Other people who have the same illness are an incredible resource! People living with the same conditions can share an incredible amount of wisdom about accommodations, medications, treatments and general lifestyle support.

Spend time with yourself. A new diagnosis can have a big impact on your life, even if you were expecting it. Taking some time to feel your feelings is important in integrating this new diagnosis into your life. As you sort through the information from the doctor, your research and the community, it can get super overwhelming. Move through it at your own pace, and know this is going to take some time! Be patient with yourself.

If you’d like some support in any of these steps and beyond, I would love to connect. If you want to learn more, you can schedule a free consultation at the link above!