Posted by Jean on 5/11/2008, 6:38 pm, in reply to "COPD and Depression"
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Depression is a common reaction for many people when they find they have a chronic condition. People with cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease and lots of other things, including COPD, often battle depression along with the physical aspects of their diseases. We've all read the stories of people who are "survivers" of whatever disease, and I think there are a couple of common threads we can all take away from those stories. One of the things many of them talk about is how they dealt with the depression that accompanied the disease and what they did that helped.
One of the things is that most of the people did whatever they could to take control of their condition, as much as possible. For us that might mean quitting smoking, losing weight, beginning an exercise program. Another thing they did was to seek some sort of outside help, whether a counselor, a person in their church, family member or a good friend: they all had someone they could trust to listen to them and to provide support during the really tough emotional times. The third thing was that they also sought help from their docs through meds if necessary.
What these stories represent to me is that it's important to recognize and do whatever you can to control and manage your own life. It's bad enough that we have whatever disease we have, we need to avoid making it worse than it has to be. Just MHO.
Jean
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