I attended a lecture about disability and the role of the mind. Fascinating. So important to (try to) tackle our fears. Here are a few quotes:
It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has
Hippocrates
Patients with the same illness or injury can have widely different perceptions of their condition and these perceptions can lead these same two patients down very different illness projections
Petrie K and Weinman J Clinical Medicine 2006;6:536-9
* The most powerful negative driver in all chronic conditions is fear
* Fear leads to avoidance of the activity/situation
*’Avoiders do not have different demographics, pain or medical history from other back sufferers but they do have a greater fear of pain & reinju
Waddell 1998
In plainer English, quite a lot of how you fare with a disease depends on the state of your heart.
Here’s a book we were referred to — about back pain but with much wider applicability. Given the price, maybe ask a doctor friend to lend it to you!