Chronic Illness and Long-Term Conditions

You manage your condition every day, and little of it shows. The appointments, the pacing, the plans you cancel and the energy you ration. It is tiring in a way that is hard to explain to people who are well.

A long-term condition is one that cannot be cured but can be managed. More than 15m people in England live with at least one. The strain on your mood is real, and it is something a professional can help with.

Source: Naylor et al. 2012

What we are and what we are not

We help you find a professional who works with the emotional and psychological side of living with illness. That support runs alongside your GP, your consultant and any treatment you are on. It never replaces them.

We do not diagnose, and we do not give medical advice. Questions about your condition, your symptoms or your medication belong with your medical team. The professional you find here helps you carry the rest.

How it can feel

The NHS names the emotional effects that often come with a physical illness:

• Stress, worry or anxiety, especially around appointments and test results
• Low self-esteem, or the sting of stigma and being treated differently
• Loneliness, sometimes after long stays in hospital or long spells at home
• Anger, frustration or grief when illness stops you doing what you used to
• Sleep problems, driven by pain, sickness or the side effects of treatment

About a third of people with a long-term condition also live with a mental health condition. The NHS lists a longstanding illness, including one that causes long-term pain, as something that raises the risk of depression.

None of that means you are failing to cope. It means you are carrying two loads at once, and the second one deserves care too.

Sources: NHS: physical illness, NHS England: long term conditions, NHS: depression causes

Grief for the life you had

Many people describe a loss that nobody sent a card for. The job you left, the sport you stopped, the plans that no longer fit your body. Some grieve the person they were before the diagnosis.

That grief is real, and it can arrive years after the diagnosis. Our grief page covers loss of health alongside other losses. A professional who works with chronic illness will know the shape of it.

When the pain is not believed

Long-term pain wears at your mood, your sleep and your patience. Many people find pain drags their mood down, and low mood then makes the pain harder to bear.

Many people also carry the weight of not being believed. Tests come back clear, and the pain does not. A professional will take your pain as real from the first session, because it is.

Fear of appointments and results

Some people find the medical side itself becomes the hardest part. A scan, a blood test or a waiting room can set off a fear that lasts for days. Some start to avoid the care they need.

That fear responds to therapy. Our anxiety page covers the wider picture. A professional can work with you on the specific dread, so appointments stop costing you the week around them.

What talking therapy can do

NHS England says people with a long-term condition should have the same access to recommended talking therapies as anyone else. Its Talking Therapies services run a pathway for exactly this, so ask your GP about it.

Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, works on the thoughts that turn a symptom into a spiral. A flare becomes "I will never manage anything again", and the fear makes the flare harder to sit through. Therapy works on that link.

Some people need less structure and more room. A person-centred counsellor gives you space to talk about who you are now, at your own pace. Both are talking therapies, and a first session helps you tell which one fits.

Source: NHS England: long term conditions

Who to look for

Look for a professional who names chronic illness, long-term conditions or health conditions in their profile. Ask how they work around fatigue and flare-ups, and whether they offer online sessions. A bad week should not cost you the session.

Bring the whole picture. Work, money, relationships and the way people around you have changed often land at the same time. A good professional will not ask you to pick one.

Many people put this off for years. The illness felt like the only thing they were allowed to need help with. It is not.