Getting Started

I am new to blogging. These days it seems as though there must be something wrong with you if you’re not blogging. So I’ve decided to jump in and join the bloggers of the world to experience this for myself. Since my business is all about providing information and tools for people that can help make their lives better – and easier – it seems to be the perfect way to share information, to share what I’m learning and to get feedback on what works.

Last night I interviewed the authors of a book called: After the Diagnosis: The Journey Beyond. Trish Robichaud and Jeff Cadwell are Life Coaches and Sylvia McGrath is a Freelance Writer and together they wrote this very interesting book. It’s not published yet – it should be out in December or early January at the latest, but I wanted to talk with them about it because I think it has a lot of very valuable information for anyone who has (or knows someone who has) a chronic illness.

Let me share some of the main points that we discussed:

Grieving
After receiving a serious diagnosis it’s important for you, and everyone around you, to understand that you need to go through a grieving process. It’s natural and normal. In the same way as you would grieve when you lose someone close to you, it’s necessary to grieve for the things you cannot do and may not be able to do, for the life you used to live, for the person you thought you were.

Denial
This is a survival mechanism and it kicks in with or after the grieving process. It’s important to understand that this is a typical reaction. If you have a condition where the symptoms are mild or in remission it can be easy to deny that there is anything wrong at all. It’s not so easy to do when your symptoms become so severe that they start interfering with your daiy activities.

Anger
Going through a period of anger is also normal. It’s important to get the anger out and not keep it inside. You may be angry at yourself, at people who try to help you. Look for ways that you can turn the anger around and channel it into something positive.

Bargaining
There may be a period of bargaining, which is an attempt to control the situation – if I can just do this, then it means that or I’ll be able to do X.

These are just some of the stages we discussed. Trish, Jeff and Sylvia – who live with chronic illness themselves – shared some great information and resources.

If you’d like to hear a recording of this interview and be informed of other tele-seminars and upcoming interviews, become a member of Harmony Inside & Out – at www.HarmonyInandOut.com.

If you’d like to hear more on this topic or have feedback or questions, or would just like to share your own experience, feel free to comment on this post.