Long-term, resistant and chronic diseases are stressful and tiring. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can lead to a depressed mood. Sleep patterns are disrupted and patients may feel constantly tired. This situation can further increase the negative mood.
There is a decrease in social situations such as work and friends, and this leads to a feeling of loss in patients. Depression that occurs in chronic diseases causes certain changes in people's thoughts, leading to a negative "chain reaction". Lack of control over pain, especially when the pain becomes severe; It strengthens the belief in helplessness. In this case, a feeling of physical helplessness occurs. This situation paves the way for destructive thoughts about the future to form and take root. Thus, individuals with chronic diseases become even more pessimistic and begin to see the future as hopeless.
In case of depression, there are some useless ways of thinking that are especially negative, constantly repeat themselves, and seem completely believable to the person at that time. For example, someone who is having a hard day because of pain may start to think, "I'm useless." Then he may direct this thought to another negative thought, "I am absolutely useless."
In such cases, it is important to catch negative thoughts and question their reality. These thoughts may have seemed logical at the time, given the circumstances. But we do not have full control over chronically recurring pain.
Questioning unhelpful beliefs and thoughts can help improve mood and therefore relieve chronic pain. This does not mean irrationally "thinking positively" about everything. It's just about noticing the thoughts that negatively affect the situation in painful situations. Because our thoughts are the keys to our emotions. Since they usually flow through our minds, we cannot understand whether they are positive or negative, we only feel the emotion it creates. This feeling returns to us as behavior, and we are affected positively or negatively. It is very important to be able to suggest ourselves positively and to be able to recognize our thoughts in a way that does not increase the pain during the disease.
Thought to try to question thoughts, It is necessary to recognize the emotion and behavior triad. More thoughts pass through our minds during the day than we can count. These are floating thoughts and are mostly unconscious. Without realizing it, we begin to feel the emotions created by these "automatic thoughts". Thoughts are formed by associations, daily routines and some events. For example, we may unconsciously think about an event that happened in the past and was covered up and feel anxiety. We may develop emotions such as anxiety, stress and anger based on these thoughts. As a result of these emotions, we may act stressed and anxious and be unable to get out of the plot. The important thing is to be able to detect the thought as soon as you notice the negative emotion. This becomes possible over time by doing thought exercises.
It is useful to write down thoughts in a notebook when questioning them. What should be noted when you feel the negative emotion is "What were you doing at that time and what was going through your mind?"
You can give a score out of 10 for the intensity of this emotion. Thus, as you examine the thoughts that cause this feeling, you can realize which thoughts form a useless chain.
Then it is important to question these thoughts. What evidence does and does not support this? Do you jump to conclusions or have "all or nothing" black and white thoughts?
Finally, check the reactions these thoughts create and how these reactions affect your mood. It is always very useful to get expert support in situations where it is difficult to cope. The importance of mental health in chronic diseases should not be ignored. Mental and physical health is a whole, being able to fight stress is very effective in coping with the negativities caused by chronic diseases.
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