Depressive thinking

Depressive thinking…with chronic illness? We’ve never heard of such a thing! We’re kidding, of course. Depressive thinking can be brought on by chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and generalized worry about illness. It’s super common with inflammatory illnesses, such as Lyme disease, mold illness, and many other chronic conditions, especially because you can feel so out of con-trol. Figuring out the root cause is not always easy because symptoms like fatigue, poor appe-tite, trouble concentrating, and insomnia occur in both chronic illness and depression. And sometimes, having a chronic illness can trigger clinical depression, a potentially serious but treatable illness itself. While it might feel like someone hijacked your brain, don’t stress. Research shows that it’s probably just those maddening inflammatory toxins at work again. It isn’t you, it’s not your fault, and you are not alone. Tell those feelings you are onto them and bigger than they are! To help boost your mood, commit to self-care behaviors like being physically active, eating well, taking part in social events or activities (no matter how much you don't want to!) and practicing mindfulness, meditation, or guided relaxation. By the way, we know doing these things can be really hard when you’re feeling down, so grab a Wana buddy who gets you and make it a date. Talk to your practitioner about your chronic illness management plan—sometimes improvements in the chronic illness will relieve the depressive thinking. You might also want try the Dynamic Neural Retraining System™ (DNRS), yoga, vitamin B-complex, or mood-elevating herbs like damiana, lemon balm, and sassafras root.