When diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, you may wonder whether you can continue to live a normal lifestyle. While you will go through ups and downs, there are some steps you can take to live a fulfilling life and keep stress levels to a minimum. Here are some tips to help you make your life easier when dealing with an autoimmune disease.
Educate Yourself – It is important to learn all you can about your specific autoimmune disease. Ask your doctor for reading material as well as reputable websites that can give you the information needed to deal with your condition. Read all you can, and find books that can help you cope with your symptoms.
Find Support Groups – Whether online or in real life, you can find support groups for your specific autoimmune disease. If you can not find a group, consider starting your own. The internet is often the easiest way to find support, since it does not require you to leave your home or host gatherings.
Examine Your Diet – What you eat can either be helpful or damaging to your condition. In most cases, an anti inflammatory diet may be helpful. Ask your doctor about adjusting your diet in order to improve or possibly prevent flare ups of your symptoms.
Relax – Stress can trigger auto immune disease symptoms. Do your best to reduce or limit stress in your life. This may mean that you need to clear your calendar and stay at home for awhile. Take the time to engage in the activities you know will help you relax.
Ask For Help – Do not be afraid to ask friends and family for help. If you need your house cleaned, laundry done, meals cooked, or errands ran then enlist the help of loved ones. Those who love you want to help and just need to know what it is they can do for you. If you do not have friends or family nearby to help, consider hiring a maid for those tasks that take too much energy to do yourself.
Get A Wheelchair – Getting a wheelchair may be the key in making life easier when dealing with an auto immune disease. With a wheelchair, you can still go out and do things, but without using all of your energy. You will be able to save your energy for when you really need it. Getting the rest you need is important in combating your symptoms.
The diagnosis of an auto immune disease can be devastating at first, but when you learn to deal with it using the above tips, you will often find that you can still live life to its fullest. Informational credit to Medical For You.
Informational credit to Flickr Creative Commons, medician.