Hopeful Acceptance: Strategies for Coping with Chronic Illness (Part 5 of 5)

Telling a New Story About Illness and Wellness Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 By Alana Karran Confronted with the choice of whether or not to have a chronic illness, most would choose not. It is a daily reminder of impermanence. It also thrusts many into confronting life-long held habits, attitudes and mental models that simply do not serve their illness. Developmentally, being confronted with a chronic illness is similar to other fundamental rites of passage, like parenthood, midlife and elderhood. For many women, in particular, the diagnosis of a chronic illness may also come at the same time as one of these life junctures, compounding the feelings of existential against. The way you frame the story about your illness plays greatly into the way you will experience your illness. If you feel there is no hope, all is lost,