{"id":10609,"date":"2016-11-22T12:22:35","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T12:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=10609"},"modified":"2016-11-22T12:22:35","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T12:22:35","slug":"what-do-you-do-when-a-loved-one-becomes-chronically-ill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/what-do-you-do-when-a-loved-one-becomes-chronically-ill\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you do when a loved one becomes chronically ill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Third Age<\/strong> blog post, by Suzan Jackson: What do you do when a loved one becomes chronically ill?<\/a><\/p>\n

Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. A beloved friend or family member develops a chronic illness, and their life changes dramatically with that diagnosis and new restrictions. Of course, we want to be there for our loved one \u2013 to say just the right thing and offer help \u2013 but the sad truth is that many people instead say nothing, for fear of saying the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Suzan Jackman suggests you reach out to your friend or family member to support them when they need you most, based on the experiences of people who are chronically ill:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Say Nothing<\/p>\n

Do Try Simple Statements of Support<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Offer To Help Without Specifics<\/p>\n

Do Help in Specific Ways<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Offer Unsolicited Advice<\/p>\n

Do Pass Along Scientific Studies (But Not Too Often)<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Make Unplanned Visits or Phone Calls<\/p>\n

Do Show Your Support<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Pretend Everything Is Fine<\/p>\n

Do Acknowledge the Illness & Show Interest<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Pity or Judge Your Loved One<\/p>\n

Do Show Compassion, Empathy, and Acceptance<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Take Cancellations or Absences Personally<\/p>\n

Do Keep Inviting!<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more by Suzan Jackson<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0and Live with CFS<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Third Age blog post, by Suzan Jackson: What do you do when a loved one becomes chronically ill? Sooner or later, it happens to all of us. A beloved friend or family member develops a chronic illness, and their life … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3281,3282],"class_list":["post-10609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-suzan-jackson","tag-third-age"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5qkYK-2L7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10610,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609\/revisions\/10610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}