Which symptoms are the most distressing for patients?
Published 9 Jul 2019 • Updated 12 Jul 2019 • By Josephine O'Brien
In March we reached out to our members and asked them a difficult question, “If you could get rid of one of your symptoms, which one would it be and why?”. We received an overwhelming amount of responses and we were delighted to get so much feedback and insights into how our members feel. Despite everyone suffering from different conditions, many of the symptoms being experienced were similar.
Fatigue
Fatigue and lethargy were the most cited symptoms that caused difficulty for our members. This isn’t surprising as we already did a survey and discovered that over 70% of our members are feeling exhausted on a daily basis.
>>Read the survey results here
Several members, such as @Squidge, mentioned how they would love to “wake up even just once and feel like I had slept well and was able to kick start my day.” Another member, @Winnie1000, echoed this sentiment with a wish to, “just for once, wake up feeling refreshed instead of so awfully tired.”
Other members such as @babyspoon, @Danilou and @ann2019 all agreed that fatigue was greatly hindering their lives.
Pain
The second most common symptom to be brought up was the daily, constant pain that members suffer from. Whether it is from multiple sclerosis or osteoarthritis, chronic pain is having a massive impact of on our members’ quality of life.
A member, @GLOJO1, tells us about how her chronic pain has made her “housebound for six years”. Living with chronic pain not only affects you physically but mentally too, as one member, @Mandy59 pointed out, “The pain makes me miserable”.
>>Join our forum about treatments for chronic pain
Pain is a constant companion or many of our members, with @Bigj1969 declaring, "I would love one day without the chronic pain. I never get a day without it”. Other members, such as @Autumn Fairy, @LynnDoherty and @JenniferGrace with these statements about the life impacting element of chronic pain.
Depression and loneliness
Unfortunately, depression and loneliness can often be a companion to dealing with a chronic condition. Some members feel isolated because of their illness and having to put up a veneer of feeling okay. One of our members phrased this eloquently with, “For me, it's the withdrawal from socialising, the not wanting to talk about difficulties and having to pretend. Yes I feel the emotional impacts, I'm very, very lonely.”
For others, it is depression that they found the most difficult symptoms to deal with. A member described it as, “The hollow, gut wrenching, good for nothing feeling you get from depression.”
Brain fog
From certain side effects of medication, or from a certain condition, many of our members mentioned how brain fog is a debilitating symptom experienced.
>>Read our article about tips for fighting brain fog
Brain fog stops sufferers from being able to think consistently or focus properly, as @Gentlemanmike describes it, “The brain fog which stops me from doing things I like as it stops me being able to remember things”. This is repeated by @BrianM with, “my severe emotional block to learning and performing normal work tasks.”
Positivity
However, even though you all described your individual difficulties, you also impressed us with your positivity and hunger for appreciating the small things in life.
>>Join our discussion on life’s little pleasures
Even though every day you are experiencing pain, fatigue, brain fog and all the other different and nuanced symptoms of depression, there was also a resounding voice of strength from you. Here are some of the lovely words of strength and encouragement that our members said:
@Maggie-mae “But, I wake up every morning so that I am very thankful of x”
@Izzyjamal “Don’t give up!!!!! NEVER!!!!”
@Neil1964 “to all of you very brave people, never give up or give in just embrace your new freedom.”
Thank you all so much for participating in our discussions, you make Carenity what it is!
How about you? What symptom would you get rid of? Do you agree with all the feelings and opinions shared?
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8 comments
Osteoporosis arthritis causes my mobility problems, my breast cancer causes my anxiety PTSD and low moods depression worse ,my emphysema causes problems with my breathing ,my coeliac disease upsets me a lot because I cant eat the foods that I want to eat ,my fatigue makes me feel tired all the time so pretty much all my illnesses causes me a lot of problems but my breast cancer causes me the most to worry about because waiting 9years for the absolute all clear is very scary incase it comes back or spreads to any other parts of my body and my lymphoedema hurts when I try to do things so pretty much everything causes me to worry
Mine is getting rid of all the disgusting mucus that I am producing and literally spend hours a day vomiting it up as I have no cough reflex since I had radiotherapy, I spend some days six to seven hours , the only time I don’t is if I lay on my left side, it’s so disabilitating I won’t go out very far as when the mucus is building I can barely breathe, such my life is just an existence.
I would like to walk normally and easily! I hate the fact that I walk so very slowly and I look like I have a really stiff leg! I am still walking after 30 plus years but I feel stupid!!!
