When Chronic Illness Leads to Depression and Anger
Your chronic illness weighs heavily on your body. Whether it is due to pain, mobility or your senses, your body doesn’t function the way you want it to; it doesn’t function the way other bodies do. This difference makes you stand out and forces others to see you differently.
The problems don’t end with the physical, though. Your physical problems also weigh heavily on your mind. It seems to create a disconnect between you and the rest of the world because your experience is so different from other people’s. You feel like an outsider in your own skin.
This weight increases the risk of experiencing mental health issues. Over the years, studies have found that people with physical disabilities are at greater risk of depression than the average population. Perhaps unsurprisingly, people with physical disabilities experience three times the rate of depression, three times the rate of loneliness and four times the rate of feeling like a failure.
These findings may be disappointing, but they do not indicate that you are destined to live a life full of depression and despair. Hopefully, this information gives you motivation to be different and exceptional.
Depression will try to suck you into its black hole. Your job is to resist and then fight back to make your life as positive and full of potential as it can be.
The task is intimidating but achievable. Here’s how:
Work Through Anger
Whether the disability came into your life later or was there from birth, you are left with a lot of questions. Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? How could God do this to me? Where did my life go wrong?
Think about these questions that come to your mind. What kind of feelings do they trigger? For most people, these questions create feelings of depression. The symptoms of sadness, low self-esteem, problems with weight changes and sleeping issues are recognizable, which makes them easier for professionals to treat.
For other people, the questions above trigger feelings of anger. What people do not understood so well is that anger commonly presents in people with physical disabilities. This is true because anger and depression are feelings that are closely related. When the feeling is turned inwardly, it is expressed as depression. When it is expressed outwardly towards others, it is anger.
