Just like any other condition, disorder and disease, chronic illnesses come with many challenges that can have a big impact on people’s lives. Of course, whether you are a famous person or not, we can all be affected in the same way by them, because the disease doesn’t care about your social status or who you are. Nevertheless, we have to admit that money can make a difference though, in the sense that you can ensure yourself a carefree lifestyle with healthy foods and comprehensive medical exams (which are usually expensive), so you can prevent some diseases.
However, first of all, it is important to understand what a chronic disease means. According to health experts, chronic illnesses are long-term, often incurable diseases, with debilitating manifestations that create major discomfort and even pain, significantly affecting a person’s life. Most of the time, people who suffer from a chronic disease have to change their lifestyle and follow a treatment to control the illness for the rest of their lives.
There are a lot of illnesses that can be considered chronic, but the most common include: heart disease, stroke, cancers, depression, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease, and so on.
Unfortunately, chronic diseases come with other side effects that are difficult to control and that can affect your quality of life. For example, people with chronic illnesses are prone to depression and anxiety as well, because physiological symptoms are often associated with deeply negative emotional feelings, such as helplessness, anger, revolt, fear of death, deep sadness.
The patient may be anxious both about the disease per se (especially regarding the management of symptoms and the evolution of the pathology) and about its effects on their position in society. It’s no secret that people tend to behave differently with people suffering from a certain disease, which leads to frustration in the long run.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 6 in 10 American adults have at least one chronic illness and 4 in 10 adults have two or more. That being said, in order to normalize a civilized behavior towards people suffering from chronic diseases, Hollywood stars (who are already struggling with one or more) have come forward to share their stories. Read on for more!
