The Power of Acceptance
Please note that this post is sponsored by Project Baseline, but all opinions are mine, and honest and true.
The moment you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness your world stops. When you’re told you have something that is incurable and you’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life, it can feel like the life you once had is being ripped away from you. The moment I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, feelings of anger, resentment, sadness, and fear washed over me. I couldn’t picture what a “normal” life would look like living with an autoimmune disease, and honestly, I just didn’t believe I could have one.
The thing is, the key to living a happy life with a chronic illness is acceptance. Acceptance of my chronic illness gave me strength, mental clarity, the ability to help others, a sense of self, and so much more. If I can get to acceptance, I know you can, too. But how do you get from complete anger and resentment towards your diagnosis to acceptance?
My journey to acceptance was a rocky one. It took me years to get to where I am now, and along the way there were many ups and downs. That’s the key, it took me time to get to true acceptance. It’s not something that happens overnight, but there are steps you can take each day to get a little bit closer to it.
During my journey towards full acceptance of my diagnosis, there were a few things that made a huge difference:
Find a community:
Finding my community who understood exactly what I was going through made me feel “normal” again. Just being able to have conversations with others that I know understood me on a level that no one else in my life could was a huge relief. It made it so much easier to get to picture my future “normal” life and accept that I would be okay. This is a huge reason I wanted to create this online community for others going through similar things that I had been through. But it can be helpful to find as many communities as possible where you feel at home.
Participate in research studies:
Something that I have found helped me get closer to acceptance of my chronic illness was sharing my experience and information in trusted research studies. It can be hard to know where to find studies like this, and that’s why I’ve chosen to participate in Project Baseline. By participating in their Gut Research Project, you can help researchers better understand gut health through completing an online survey and sharing your EHR (electronic health record). For doing that, you will not only be helping researchers gain more info, but you will also be compensated, get first access to relevant studies, and future access to other Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis opportunities. Taking action outside of the doctor’s office and participating in things that can help both you and other patients down the line can move mountains when it comes to accepting your diagnosis. You become a part of something so much bigger than just yourself when you participate in studies like this, and it reminds you that you’re not alone.
Create a support system for yourself:
Just like finding a community, having a strong support system that you can be open with about your diagnosis is incredibly helpful in accepting your chronic illness. Maybe those people are those in the communities you found, or they are significant others, parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, etc. Maybe that looks like taking the extra step to hire a coach, therapist or mental health professional. Therapy was a huge help in getting to acceptance with my diagnosis (plus I’m a huge advocate for therapy overall - I think everyone can benefit). Whatever that looks like for you and your life, it’s critical to have at least one person you can turn to and share yourself and your diagnosis with. It takes the burden off of you always being alone in your own head about things. Plus, the power of talking through things with other people is HUGE. I’m always here to coach you through it, so don’t forget that! I want to be your biggest cheerleader, hand-holder and advocate when it comes to accepting and embracing your diagnosis.
These tips definitely don’t entirely encompass all of the things that helped me get to full acceptance of my diagnosis. But they are the things that I feel like made the biggest difference for me. And like I said, acceptance doesn’t come overnight. So please don’t set a timeline for yourself or get mad at yourself when you’re not where you hoped to be on your journey of acceptance. If you haven’t yet, check out the Baseline Gut Research Project here, and if you’re able, share your story to help improve gut health research.
We all come to things in our own time. Healing isn’t linear and isn’t something you can entirely control. But you can take active steps to get closer day by day. And like I said, I’m always here for you if you need that extra support.