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The Grief Cycle of Diagnosis
No one tells you that grief will play a big role in your post-diagnosis life.
Earlier this year, I was reading creative coach Jen Carrington’s newsletter and, in it, she mentions the grief cycle of chronic illness. It was a brief mention, but I could not get her words out of my head. I thought about what they meant and found myself understanding my post-diagnosis thoughts and feelings in a wholly new and compassionate way.
What I finally did understand — at that point about a year and half after being diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) — was that I was in grief. Deeply.
A different meaning of loss
The thing no one tells you about life with chronic illness is the role grief will play. It has been one of the most surprising parts about this journey for me. Intellectually, I know that it is impossible to experience major changes in your physical health without psychological repercussions, but I was still not quite prepared for the toll chronic illness has on emotional health.
Though I know that grief can strike whenever we feel a deep loss, I unconsciously equated grief with loss of life. It took me sometime to acknowledge and accept that a loss of life is not just defined by the death of a loved one; loss can also be defined by a radical change in life. A health diagnosis…
