The psychology of chronic illness
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May 19, 2024, 10:14 p.m.
A chronic illness diagnosis is a life changing event, heck it literally alters one's psychological state
forever; triggering the mind to question everything in life daily.
But I would like to speak about how the brain views this chronic illness and responds to it psychologically, having
Multiple Sclerosis myself I noticed a variety of psychological changes growing in me since my diagnosis; to list few:
-Depression
-Anxiety
-Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA)
These conditions introduce a bulk of changes in the patient's life; as each the physical symptoms of M.S contribute
to increase the psychological conditions.
For example, fatigue contributes to depression, the unpredictable nature of M.S contributes to anxiety, and the breakdown in communication between the front and the back of the brain causes PBA. Like so; each psychical symptom causes a psychological
mark one way or another.
Thus, the psychological condition while having a chronic disease is nothing but a consequence of the existing physical
symptoms, sometimes the medicines taken to relief these symptoms cause psychological effects too.
In summary; chronic symptoms of life-long conditions cause the psychology of the patient to change drastically in
response to the physical symptoms endured; and the side-effects of the medications taken to relief these physical
symptoms.
Mohammed Ba'ashar
Simply put, I'm the creator of Byts N Bytes !