Some balance and dizziness disorders are chronic conditions. Learning how to cope better with a chronic condition can help reduce stress and anxiety as well as bring symptoms under control.

The notion of ‘surviving or thriving' in relation to a chronic condition, where there are good days and bad days, requires perhaps a shift in thinking. While we all have the potential to survive despite ill health, sometimes simply surviving the day equals success! Can we accept that thriving might occur in only certain areas of our lives and only at certain times?

Learning to live with chronic conditions takes time and enormous energy. It inevitably means confronting feelings of loss, which in our society – focused so resolutely on happiness, success, beauty, and achievement – is most challenging.

We are brought up to show a ‘happy face’ and are not encouraged to explore our negative feelings. For this reason, even though having a chronic condition is something to feel negatively about, it is extremely difficult to express it. We tend to justify our silence, but silence itself can increase our suffering. Although we see a balance of 'light' and 'dark' in nature, we try desperately to avoid the darker side of life. But if we continually hold in our negative feelings, sometimes they can overwhelm us.

Part of living with a chronic condition means having to adjust and readjust to change – sometimes one day will hold many such changes – causing a rollercoaster effect to both our body and our emotions. While we have to tolerate the physical changes, we can most definitely address and shift the emotional ones, like depression or anxiety. Practicing relaxation techniques and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may help reduce anxiety.

Key points to remember:

• All of our feelings are valid, can be acknowledged, and can be understood by others.
• We all need help from the beginning to the end of our lives, and we should be gentle with ourselves.
• We all are lovable and deserve to be supported and cared for – in order for this to happen, we must reach out.
• We all experience both intense emotional joy and pain in our lives, for this is part of what it is to be human.
• It is a myth to think that we are ever truly independent. We all need and support each other all our lives. We are all a good mix of weak, strong, dependent, and independent.
• Many people with vestibular disorders experience dizziness-related depression.

More resources

The following can offer more help and support for affected individuals and their families.

Online

Positive Coping with Health Conditions: A Self-Care Workbook [PDF] by Drs. Dan Bilsker, Joti Samra and Elliot Goldner
A self-care manual authored by scientist-practitioners at Simon Fraser University in BC with expertise in issues relating to coping with health conditions. The workbook [PDF] and accompanying Relaxation Method Audio [MP3 File] can be downloaded free-of-charge. Print copies and audio CDs are also available.

SuperBetter
This iOS and Android app builds the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of change and difficult challenges such as coping with chronic health conditions.

Fear Came to Stay - a powerful poem written by a concussion sufferer in British Columbia

Books