Living Well and Coping with Long Term Illness

It is more likely for people with Long Term Conditions (LTCs) to have anxiety and low moods. These emotional struggles can make the physical symptoms of their LTC worse. The physical effects of an LTC can be upsetting and hard to manage, which can cause people to worry, overthink, avoid, and withdraw.

It’s easy to see how these signs could lower a person’s quality of life. Please know that you are not alone, and we want to help you take the steps you need to take care of your mental and physical health.

Kent and Medway Talking Therapies can offer specialist mental health support, to help you in coping with long-term illness.

No matter your LTC, we can support you. Some examples of conditions we support are:

• Cardiovascular Disease
• Chronic fatigue and Fibromyalgia
• Diabetes
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Long covid
• Lung conditions
• Musculoskeletal pain

How can talking therapies help?

Through accessing the service, our therapists can support you in coping with long term illness by exploring strategies and skills to manage anxiety and low mood. As well as this, we will look at the links between your thoughts, behaviours, physical symptoms and emotions- then practice key tools to make some helpful adaptations. In turn, our aim is to improve your quality of life and help you live well with an LTC.

Once we get your referral request, we can set up a time to talk on the phone about your problems and figure out the best way to help you.