What Is a Chronic Illness?

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Find a therapist to help with chronic illness

It is simplisitic to view any condition as being only in the mind or the body.

Comprehensive care for complex or chronic illness should include the mind and the body.

Treating psychological pain may also help alleviate physical pain.

Often, individuals hesitate to consult a mental health clinician when they are struggling with a chronic physical illness. There may be a worry about stigma. American culture often views illness without nuance, separating disorders into physical and/or mental illness. An individual may feel they need to choose a side and stick with it.

Here’s how I explain to my new patients who are medically ill how a mental health clinician is a value-add:

It’s never all in your head or your body

Seeing a mental health clinician does not mean that your current pain or medical distress is “all in your head.” It does not mean your illness is not being taken seriously, that you are not coping well enough, or that you are fabricating symptoms.

It is a simplification to consider any bodily distress to be all in one’s head or all in one’s body. Sometimes it can be easy to forget that we have a neck. When treating the whole person, we recognize that the mind is constantly communicating with the body and vice versa.

This connection is even reflected in our language: When you hear someone complain of a “lump in the throat” or “butterflies in the stomach,” we appreciate that these symptoms are physical manifestations of anxiety, an emotional state.

Stress can trigger an underlying medical issue

We know that stress, anxiety, and mood changes can amplify pain or contribute to a flare of a medical vulnerability. As I explain to my Massachusetts patients, many of whom are die-hard sports fans, cardiac events increase when a beloved team loses an important........

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