TW – Please be aware this blog post talks about mental health issues surrounding chronic illness including medical gaslighting and negative opinion from others. If this is something that may be difficult for you at this time, please click off and check out some of my other posts instead.

Today I thought I would talk about a topic very close to my heart: Mental health in relation to chronic illness. Personally, I have found one of the hardest parts of living with chronic illness aside from the symptoms they create, is the mental health implications of persistent, never-ending illness.

When I thought about the various mental health challenges associated with chronic illness I realised there were quite a few. The best I can categorise them is as follows:

• Other people
• Yourself
• The uncertainties/missing out
• Managing symptoms

I am going to go into each category in more detail over 2-3 blog posts. A – because if you are anything like me reading long posts can be difficult, and B – I want to give myself a little break in-between. With this in mind, let me start with the first category…

Mental Health and Chronic Illness with regards to other people

One of the biggest challenges with mental health and chronic illness is the opinion of others. Many people may say why does this matter? You know your own self to know if you are ill or not, but the reality is it does matter. It matters because being believed is one of the biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to invisible illness. Most chronic illnesses don’t project an image of a sick person; in fact most chronically ill people look completely healthy, like any other person you may encounter on a day to day basis. Unfortunately there is no big neon light above our heads saying ‘Chronic Illness Person Here’ to make it easier for others to identify. It is hard for someone who doesn’t experience illness to get to grips with this concept at times, but also understandable, I mean can you completely resonate with something you have never experienced yourself? Whilst this is annoying, the kick to the gut is no doubt the dismissive behaviour of medical professionals and those who are trained to know better.

Medical gaslighting of chronic illnesses has probably been a thing for who knows how many years, that notion of a stiff upper lip and getting on with it runs rife especially in places like here in the UK. The problem being chronic illness is not something that is going to just disappear and go away, and actually the more you ignore it the worse it can get. The mental health destruction of having a qualified medical professional tell you over and over again that there is nothing wrong with you, is something I can truly say never leaves you. The fact this person or persons who have all these qualifications in medical science is telling you essentially what you believe is all in your head can only lead to one conclusion – it is all in your head. You illnesses and symptoms are something you are manifesting yourself and you are so mentally ill you are able to convince yourself you are having physical symptoms was a notion which led me to question my own state of mind. They were the professionals not me, and when you have someone tell you on a loop you are wrong you only have one option but to believe it, and as a result I couldn’t trust my own actions anymore. Even after it was discovered I was ill, no apology was ever made to me because it didn’t matter to them – I didn’t matter to them.

The problem with not having a medical professional backing your concerns not only impacts your thoughts on your own mental health, but the thoughts of those around you too. The people who love you start to doubt your stability because a medical person must know your body more than you do, and therefore they also start treating you like a mental health problem. The difficult part being even after you are diagnosed the stigma of those dismissed years of illness stay in people’s minds no matter how hard they try to convince you otherwise. The eye rolls, the exchanged glances, the declarations of ‘what’s wrong now’ for a long time filled me with shame. Like I was a thorn in so many people’s sides.

If this wasn’t enough you have the people in the street who you vaguely know, stop you and ask why you are not working, or why you aren’t more social. Who make their little remarks as they look you up and down, judging. You paint a smile on your face because you don’t know how to react whilst all the while dealing with the little voices in your head telling you they don’t believe you. It shouldn’t matter, but it does because you want people to see the real you and not the version they think you are selling.

One of the saddest things about public opinion on chronic illness is a lot of the time people don’t believe it whether you are diagnosed or not. Or maybe to be blunter they don’t care. There has probably never been a time when this has been reflected more than in the current times with the pandemic. Living somewhere where the lives of the vulnerable has been so disposable has been heart-breaking to say the least, but more than that it has been mentally traumatic knowing there are people who don’t value your life as much as your ‘healthier’ peers. The mental health implications of vulnerable communities has the potential to run on for years as people feel neglected and less valued in society.

So, is there an answer to this particular mental health challenge?

I would say yes, but not one that will happen overnight. It takes kindness and patience with yourself and it takes understanding and education of others. To move forward in society the reality of chronic illness needs to be talked about, and honest conversations need to be had. Chronic illness needs to be normalised and represented more across main stream media to demonstrate how anyone can become ill regardless of age, race, sex and background. Most of all we need to stop treating invisible illnesses like a dirty little secret to be ashamed of, on the contrary we need to make the invisible visible through our communications and words.

Medical professionals need to be trained in understanding the impact their dismissive behaviour can have not only on a patient’s physical, but mental health too. Chronic illnesses diagnoses need to be viewed as important as other diagnoses and support needs to come in the form of helping patients find their new path in life and helping them to combat the emotions they will inevitably face.

Here we have it challenge one – complete! I hope this wasn’t too long a post (I am basing this purely on my own experiences), either way I will tackle the next challenges in my future post. To keep up to date with my upcoming posts make sure you follow me 😊.

As always if you have any comments to share – I would love to hear from you.

Sarah xx