Invisible Battles: How growing up chronically ill shapes the mind.

 Title: 

Invisible Battles: How growing up chronically ill shapes the mind.

 

Intro: 

It is hard to maintain a healthy mind in a body that is not healthy since physical and mental health are deeply interconnected. The emotional toll of having physical limitations can cause stress, anxiety, and depression.

 

Having a Chronic illness as a child is very likely to lead to mental health issues due to the intense challenges that the child may face. Over time, the stress from constant doctor’s visits, tests, and procedures can increase the risk of developing a mental disorder. 

 

Background: 

~Chronic illness: A health condition or disease that is long lasting and affects the person for their whole life. These conditions typically cannot be cured, only managed. Examples include diabetes, autoimmune disorders, asthma, and many others. 

 

~Many children do not get diagnosed with chronic illnesses quickly, since their symptoms can be vague or mistaken for something else. Because of this, these children are left confused about what is “wrong” with them, especially since it seems like their bodies do not work the same as others. 

 

~Many children that suffer from chronic illnesses feel like a burden to their parents, since they internalize the stress and financial strain they observe from their parents. These feelings can deeply affect their mental health by giving them the emotional issue of guilt, sadness, or depression. 

 

~Chronic illnesses are more common than people realize since they often get overlooked by society. The lack of awareness, media representation, and understanding has led to many people not being aware of others or their own chronic illness. Because of this, many people with chronic illnesses feel unseen and unsupported. 

 

~Many chronic illnesses are known as invisible, so many people do not understand what a person living with one is going through. An invisible illness is one that their symptoms are not immediately visible to others. Because of this people may be skeptic of the persons illness and judgmental. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Findings: 

 

 

~The mental health state of 286 random young adults with chronic illnesses were examined. There were findings of predictably and patterns between the diagnosis of a chronic illness and the diagnosis of a mental health issue. 

 

Ireys, H. T., A., L., Kolodner, K. B., & Gross, S. S. (1994). Mental Health of Young Adults with Chronic Illness: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Impact. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 19(2), 205-222. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/19.2.205

 

 

 

~A qualitative study where children with chronic illnesses and their parents were able to speak their truth about life with a chronic illness. This study was done to give a voice to disadvantaged groups. 

 

Sartain, S. A., Clarke, C. L., & Heyman, R. (2000). Hearing the voices of children with chronic illness. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(4), 913-921. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.t01-1-01556.x

 

 

 

~One reason that the severity of mental disorders has been underestimated is because there is not proper knowledge of the connection between mental illness and other health issues. 

 

Prince, M., Patel, V., Saxena , S., Maj, M., & Maselko , J. (2007, September 8). No Health Without Mental Health. The Lancet. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61238-0/abstract

 

 

 

~Many young chronic illnesses patients are also mental illness patients. A very high amount of the youth that were studied in this experiment experienced mental health issues that were directly related to their chronic health conditions. 

 

Delamater , A., Guzman, A., & Aparicio, K. (n.d.). Mental health issues in children and adolescents with chronic illness. Emerald Insight. Retrieved July 10, 2017, from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ijhrh-05-2017-0020/full/html

 

 

 

~This study showed the emotional effect on the parent of a child with a chronic illness. Many factors were tested and the one that was most common was the emotional distress that was put on the parents.

 

Frankel, K., & Wamboldt, M. Z. (1998). Chronic Childhood Illness and Maternal Mental Health—Why Should We Care? Journal of Asthma, 35(8), 621–630. https://doi.org/10.3109/02770909809048964

 

 

 

Conclusion: 

It is important to understand that when a child has a chronic illness, their mental health is most likely be negatively affected. The constant challenges, stress and isolation can significantly impact the child’s mental well-being. 

 

If the reader is a caretaker of a child that suffers from a chronic illness they need to be aware of the possible mental toll it can take of the child.

 

 

 

 

By Isabella Broussard

 

I am a nursing major, and I want to work in pediatrics. I grew up with a chronic illness, so I know first-hand out it can affect mental health. 

 

Blogger Reflection: 

I enjoyed using blogger for the first time! It was a little overwhelming at first but I was not confused since the directions were very straight forward. My only questions are how can I better my abilities for this blog to be as informative as possible?