Self-Talk and Chronic Illness

Whether we are aware of it or not, we talk to ourselves all day long. Our alarm rings in the morning and we think, “It’s time to get up” or “I’m still sleepy” or “Wow, that alarm is annoying." We talk to ourselves at work and at home, in the car and on the bus, and while engaging in social and leisure time. We’re constantly interpreting the world around us through an inner monologue. Sometimes this monologue becomes so routine that it’s a background hum to which we don’t pay much attention. But the contents of our inner monologue — our “self-talk” — are worth tuning into, as they play an important role in our mental health

“What we say to ourselves affects our emotions and behavior.” (Latinjak et al., 2023). Let’s look at an example: You’re someone who struggles with chronic pain and you notice an increase in your pain level. Here is one possible self-talk monologue in response to this situation:

“I am hurting. I always hurt. Nothing I do helps. It’s not fair that I have to be in pain all the time. If I could just spend one hour without pain . . . but that’ll never happen. Listen to me, whining........

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