S3E2: “Waiting for a Diagnosis” - listener write-in
What do you do when you’re waiting for a diagnosis?
How do you get on with your life - a life that now includes what you believe is chronic illness - when you’re waiting for answers, validation and reassurance?
In today’s episode, I’ll be answering that very question, submitted by a listener.
If you want to send me a question, your journey or experience, a call to be seen, heard and witnessed, you can do so here. I’ll be answering them for as long as it feels good!
Other links:
Interested in working with me 1:1? Click here.
Check out Your Chronic Illness Ally
Episode headlines/main points of reflection:
Take some time to really tune into what you’re hoping to receive from a diagnosis. Do you have to wait for one to receive those things, or can you receive some of them elsewhere (from within, from community, from a coaching or therapeutic relationship?)
What thoughts and feelings do you have towards the way your symptoms show up in your life? Do you notice any physical reactions either when they’re present, or when you think about them? This is gold and will give an insight into how you’re cognitively behaving towards your symptoms/chronic illness; i.e I’m want to honour and embrace and think I am most of the time, and how you’re somatically responding, which could be bracing, contracting, etc. which spells rejection, othering, etc.. The way you think and believe is not always the same as the way you feel and act, even if you think you’re totally on board.
Forget honouring it, how can you honour yourself? ‘It’ is a part of you.
You know your body. You know the way you’re feeling. Better than anyone else. Deeply connecting with and having a dialogue with your whole self (which includes any symptoms you’re experiencing) is one of the most responsible things you can do.
Would you do anything differently knowing it is CFS, or knowing it’s something else, if the symptoms remain the same? How would it look for you to remove the power from a diagnosis, altogether?
And finally, because it bares repeating, Do you want to be a part of that conversation as it’s happening right here, right now, or will you remain on the outskirts, only picking up on snippets here and there, because you’re tied to the idea of a diagnosis and what you believe that might bring you? Don’t allow non-diagnosis to lead to you on some level denying your reality.