Coping with Chronic Illness: Theories, Issues and Lived Experiences

Description

This valuable book combines psychological theories of health with the lived experience of coping with chronic health conditions, focusing on the "ill person" as an actor of their own development. It draws on perspectives from developmental and health psychology alongside the author’s personal experience of chronic illness. Bonino considers all aspects of living with illness, from issues that impact on everyday functioning such as pain and fatigue, to the rebuilding of identity through meaningful new goals and effective actions, and the development of therapeutic relationships. Psychological theories are interweaved with descriptions of lived encounters to center the experience of the person living alongside illness and provide insightful points of reference that everyone could try to use when facing the challenges of chronic disease in the course of their daily lives. Coping with Chronic Illness is important reading for those living with chronic health conditions, as well as for healthcare professionals looking to gain awareness of the psychological issues caused by living with illness. It is also of interest for postgraduate students of health psychology. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of contents Preface for this edition Why this book Part I Chapter 1 Healthy and ill Equal and different: Chapter 2 Beyond the myth of perfect health Chapter 3 Protagonist of one’s own development Chapter 4 Protagonist of one’s own development in chronic disease Part II Chapter 5 Why me? Chapter 6 Finding meaning Chapter 7 Reconstructing identity Chapter 8 Self-efficacy The exercise of control: Chapter 9 Stress Chapter 10 Coping with stress Part III Chapter 11 It is all your fault Chapter 12 Pain Chapter 13 Fatigue Chapter 14 Depression Chapter 15 Mourning and loss Chapter 16 Optimism and happiness Chapter 17 Logical thought and magical thought Chapter 18 Telling the story of one’s illness Part IV Chapter 19 The therapeutic relationship Chapter 20 Trust Chapter 21 Empathy Chapter 22 The patient between statistical logic and clinical logic Chapter 23 Alternative medicine Chapter 24 Confidentiality Part V Chapter 25 Us and the others Chapter 26 Between visible and invisible Chapter 27 Solitude Chapter 28 Attachments Chapter 29 Work Chapter 30 Life and death Part VI Chapter 31 Diagnosis: Confronting the truth Chapter 32 “I want to do it on my own” Note Chapter 33 Being ill in the Internet age Chapter 34 And life goes on Chapter 35 Parents and children Bibliography Part I On development, adaptation and individual action On memory and development of higher cognitive functions On health and disease and on some chronic diseases On the functioning of mind, emotions, relations between mind and body and between consciousness and unconsciousness Part II On identity On search for meaning On self-efficacy On stress, coping, behavioural change, meditation, relaxation, resilience Part III On blaming and guilt On depression, learned helplessness, happiness, optimism On magic thought On narrative thought and story telling Part IV On empathy On trust, therapeutic relationship and its different aspects On different logics, reasoning and decision strategies, heuristics On communication Part V On attachment On family relations On solitude On cooperation and solidarity On death Part VI On communication of diagnosis to children and family life On the Internet and social media On the mentioned psychological intervention Index