4 Benefits of Having Community Throughout Your Chronic Illness Journey
If you are someone who is managing a chronic illness, community might be the last thing on your mind.
When managing something chronic, we tend to focus primarily on the physical body – what to eat, how to move, getting enough sleep, what medications or supplements to take, what treatments to try – but we forget how beneficial community is for our health. It’s a component of healing that is so easily overlooked and yet so needed.
Is it important to prioritize the physical body? Of course! However, the physical body is not the only indicator of health. Defined by the World Health Organization, “health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.”
I can attest to this firsthand. After healing from Lyme Disease and gaining my physical health back, I looked healthier from the outside, but I still didn’t feel healthy. Although I was physically stronger, I was still struggling with my mental health. After years of being so physically sick, I was holding onto so much trauma and was feeling very socially isolated - I had just been through the most difficult experience of my life and struggled to relate to anyone around me. All this to say, it wasn’t until I started prioritizing my mental health and surrounding myself with community that I started to feel truly healthy.
So how does community help? Here are four benefits of having community in the chronic illness journey.
Number One: Emotional Support
To put it simply, the type of emotional support that comes from others who have similar experiences is unmatched.
The chronic illness journey is an emotional rollercoaster ride for many reasons, and when we’re not surrounded by the right group of people, it can feel like we are completely alone, misunderstood, and afraid.
Our current support systems – partners, spouses, family, and friends – as amazing as they can be, sometimes just don’t GET it. When they haven’t been through it themselves, it’s hard to communicate the emotions that live behind having your life flipped upside down after a diagnosis, being in constant pain, or having persistent symptoms that are difficult to manage.
On the other hand, when you are surrounded by people who are going through it themselves, a like-minded community who really gets it, it’s like a breath of fresh air. When you are in a safe space where you can express your feelings, fears, and frustrations without judgment - a space where you are held emotionally and you realize that you are not alone in how you are feeling – you finally feel a sense of belonging.
There is so much power in hearing “Oh my gosh, me too!” or “I remember feeling that way too, this is what helped me…”
You realize that there are others out there who feel the same way you do and those are the people who know how to support you emotionally, because they’ve been there too.
Number Two: Reduced Isolation
Among many other things, a lack of emotional support in the chronic illness journey can leave us feeling lonely, socially disconnected, and isolated.
When those around you can’t understand what you’re going through, it often feels easier to simply retreat and stay in your little bubble. Sometimes isolation occurs because you are constantly having to cancel plans due to symptoms or flare ups and eventually you stop getting invited places. Many times, it’s easier not to make plans at all because you don’t have the energy for all the effort it takes to leave the house.
But studies have shown that isolation and loneliness can negatively impact health, leaving us with increased rates of depression and anxiety and can even lead to reduced immune function. Believe it or not, community is important for our health. But that also means finding the right community for you.
Chronic illness can make you feel like you don’t fit in, but one thing is certain – you are NOT alone. A supportive community can help you connect with others who are going through similar experiences, provide a space for you to share about your story and to hear other people’s stories and get out of your own head. A space like this often reduces the feeling of being isolated, which in turn can improve your health.
Three: Shared Experiences
In a community of people managing chronic illnesses, we can share our experiences, coping strategies, insights, and tools with each other.
This exchange of information can be valuable for learning new ways to cope with chronic illness, such as effective self-care techniques and how to navigate the healthcare system.
As mentioned above, sharing similar challenges with others reduces feelings of being alone on this difficult journey.
While it is important to have your healthcare providers assisting you through the physical healing, it is just as important to have a community to support you through the emotional healing, where you realize that you are not alone and there is someone (or many) out there who are feeling the same way as you. It’s just about surrounding yourself with those people.
Sharing your experiences with others and hearing the experiences of others can:
Reduce stress
Provide emotional support
Enhance mood
Reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness
Improve immune function
Foster a greater sense of well-being
Be a healthy coping mechanism
Improve our mental, emotional, and physical health
Provide a sense of shared purpose to support and help others too
Afterall, we are social creatures - we are meant to share our experiences with and be surrounded by people during all the positive and challenging events in our lives.
Four: Sense of Belonging
“What is belonging? We ask. She says, where loneliness ends.” – Rivers Solomon
When we are surrounded by a community of people who are going through similar experiences, loneliness fades and we begin to experience a sense of belonging.
Having the like-minded, supportive community helps us realize that we are not alone in our struggles and that others genuinely care about our well-being. We are reminded that we are not broken and do not need fixing, what we need is love, support, and empathy.
We are meant to walk this journey of life with other people who provide a safe space for us to be our authentic selves.
So what’s next?
When we’re managing a chronic illness, we often have a tendency to get stuck looking at ourselves, internalizing and focusing on our symptoms, but we don’t want to forget to also look around us. We deserve to be surrounded by a community of people who can support us emotionally and provide us with a sense of belonging.
If this is a missing piece in your health journey, we encourage you to find a community that helps shift you from chronic illness to chronic wellness!
