Spoonie Sunday Stroll #2: The 3 Stages Of Acceptance With Chronic Illness

Hello everyone and thank you for checking out Spoonie Sunday Stroll #2, where I talk about the 3 stages of acceptance that I believe we all go through with chronic illness. I think we can all agree that living the Spoonie life isn’t easy in so many ways, but acceptance of the Spoonie life is just as hard.

In my mind there are 3 phases that we all go through in order to accept the road ahead with any chronic illness.

• The diagnosis phase – When you get the news that your life has changed forever and the plans you had might just have been thrown out the window. This phase in my mind takes the longest to accept since it include on of the most drastic changes that can occur in a persons life.

• The “Oh shit” phase – This phase includes the reality of all the challenges ahead and what life will be like going forward with a chronic illness. This includes a large amount of adversity in our lives and adjustments we have to make. This is also when we need to build up what I like to call our “adversity muscle” to have the strength to take on what’s ahead.

• The “Do work” phase – At the part of the journey, you’ve accepted that life will be different now that you have a chronic illness and you’ve accepted the challenges that you’ll face on a daily basis. In my mind, this is also the most exciting phase because real change can occur. This is when we have the decision to put in the work, do the problem solving, and figure out how to live the best life possible with chronic illness.

So join me on this Spoonie Sunday Stroll and let’s take a walk to discuss these 3 stages of acceptance with chronic illness, and let’s continue to talk about everything about the Spoonie life in future strolls as we get moving, off the couch, and improve our health together.