10 ways to maintain a sense of Control with a chronic illness

It’s easier to cope with chronic illness if you feel that you have some control over your life and your health. Feeling that everything is just spinning away from you makes life more difficult. Here are my first and best so far ideas. More suggestions are always welcome for a list like this. Please leave them in the comments. We all love to hear tips.

With chronic illness you are forced to be your health manager so it is up to you to gather information and to make better decisions. You need to learn skills for this complex task as you go along, because the days of good health and no worries are behind you, though there is always the hope of having them return. As you go along you will find a management style you are comfortable with.

The first suggestion I would make is to join an online group or community.  They can be a great source of information and encouragement.  It’s harder to find a physical real-time group than one that is on-line. It is also easier to spare the time for online efforts. Yahoo has a more old-school [...] continue the story