Experience Journal: Coping with chronic illness

The Experience Journals were created to promote healthy coping strategies for children, teens and families facing adversity and chronic illness. They were founded by Drs. David DeMaso and Joseph Gonzalez-Heydrich of the Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Psychiatry, and are a collection of stories and experiences from patients and families about what it has been like to live with a significant physical and/or emotional condition. These stories represent the collective wisdom of children, teens, parents and health care providers. Here are some of their stories, in their own words. Advice from children and teens: Living with chronic illness Lucy, Vascular Anomalies You can’t let other people define who you are … Sometimes it might be something you can work out with somebody, but you just have to have better coping skills and be the person to step forward and say, “I am this way, I can’t help that this happened to me,” and explain your story. Some people open up and reach out to you and the people who don’t, you have to say it’s their loss, because everybody is special, everybody has a gift. Samantha, Transplant I go to my mom. My mom’s a big person. And then I have a friend that has been with me throughout; we’ve been friends for a really, really long time. I talk to her if I’m stressed, or if I want to vent about something, like, “Oh, I hate having to drink all this water all the time!” Youth, Facing Violence When I get upset, I have locations ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Mental Health chronic illness Experience Journal Source Type: news