Breaking the Cycle of IBD Treatment Fatigue
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There are times when someone's cultural practices or cultural beliefs do not allow for them to engage in a treatment and we have to be respectful of that. Because if we don't, then we're breaking trust, and we're increasing stress, and all that other things that come along that make this harder than it should be in the first place. Advocating for ourselves can be very, very uncomfortable. And a lot of times people will say these things like I want to get healthier, I want to do better. So are we willing to do that and advocate for ourselves in service of trying to get back to that? They need to tell me what's going on so I can help them go through it and that's part of that advocating piece.
One of the things that I work with people a lot on is how do we bring the body down? We may not have necessarily control of our thoughts in how we think or how we feel-- and I would argue that our feelings most of the time are valid-- and so we have to normalize some of these feelings and some of these emotions that come up as part of navigating your chronic illness. We can do that multiple different ways. We do it a lot of times via gut-directed hypnosis, in working systematically to bring someone down, relaxation, mindfulness. These are all great tools to use to help the body navigate this the best it can.
My job is to work in the context of where someone lives. If they do not have a strong support network? We got to figure out what we're going to do there because that's important. The other thing that is hooking them up with some more support locally and in their community. Let's build this out so it works for you long-term. What do you even want friendships to look like? What do you want relationships to look like? And what are the things that are getting in the way? And how do we work with that to get you what you need to get?
STEPHEN E. LUPE
Living with IBD and having symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease is hard in and of itself. It tends to create a lot of stress for people. When I'm looking at someone who's really, really starting to struggle with the long-term of having a chronic illness, they're not doing as much as they used to do that they enjoy. You'll see people start pulling back from it. They may start struggling with problems like depression. They're having trouble to even wanting to engage with treatment providers or they may want to withdraw from treatment even. Those are all signs that someone may be becoming burned out with having to live with a chronic illness. There are times when someone's cultural practices or cultural beliefs do not allow for them to engage in a treatment and we have to be respectful of that. Because if we don't, then we're breaking trust, and we're increasing stress, and all that other things that come along that make this harder than it should be in the first place. Advocating for ourselves can be very, very uncomfortable. And a lot of times people will say these things like I want to get healthier, I want to do better. So are we willing to do that and advocate for ourselves in service of trying to get back to that? They need to tell me what's going on so I can help them go through it and that's part of that advocating piece.
One of the things that I work with people a lot on is how do we bring the body down? We may not have necessarily control of our thoughts in how we think or how we feel-- and I would argue that our feelings most of the time are valid-- and so we have to normalize some of these feelings and some of these emotions that come up as part of navigating your chronic illness. We can do that multiple different ways. We do it a lot of times via gut-directed hypnosis, in working systematically to bring someone down, relaxation, mindfulness. These are all great tools to use to help the body navigate this the best it can.
My job is to work in the context of where someone lives. If they do not have a strong support network? We got to figure out what we're going to do there because that's important. The other thing that is hooking them up with some more support locally and in their community. Let's build this out so it works for you long-term. What do you even want friendships to look like? What do you want relationships to look like? And what are the things that are getting in the way? And how do we work with that to get you what you need to get?