ABSTRACT
When we become unwell with a long-term health problem, it is not just our physical body that suffers. All aspects of our world are potentially affected – our mood, social circumstances, relationships, finances, work performance, confidence and so forth may well be impacted upon. A diagnosis of a long-term condition can leave the individual struggling to make sense of the world. It can be a time of much stress and uncertainty as the individual considers what the future may hold for them and speculates about the course the illness may take. This is very much a personal experience, as people inevitably have different tolerances for, and perceptions of, similar symptoms and subsequently individualised ways of interpreting and coping with the symptoms. A steep learning curve is often called for as the individual is presented with a new lexicon of diagnoses, medical symptoms, services, treatments and interventions while trying to make sense of the advice given by the respective healthcare practitioners. All this can understandably have a major impact on our psychological health and well-being. In this chapter, we consider the psychological and emotional impact of long-term conditions and the subsequent need for caring for the mind. By this we do not wish to restrict ourselves necessarily to the care and treatment of people with diagnosed mental health problems, important though this is, but more broadly to consider our psychological and emotional worlds and the implications this might have for the trajectory of health and illness.
