Sheryl from A Chronic Voice, as well as sharing her own stories and lessons with chronic illness. Sheryl is an excellent support to other bloggers and writers living with illness and chronic pain. One such way is through monthly link-up parties whereby bloggers and writers share their stories through given prompts. This month, I will be looking at snapshots of a ‘chronic life’ if it was portrayed on screen.
Recently I watched ‘Unbroken: The Path to Redemption,’ the inspiring of Louis Zamperini. The film follows his return from World War II, and his ongoing struggles to adjust back to civilian life.
I particularly enjoy watching films which depict true stories of real people. I love movies which capture the real lives and real struggles of amazing and inspiring people. Films capturing the stories of overcoming great adversity are incredibly poignant for a person like myself, who is suffering from demons.
Capturing Life With A Chronic Illness
It has made me wonder what a film capturing the life of someone living with a chronic illness would entail. Would anyone even enjoy or be interested in a movie depicting a story of someone diagnosed with a neurological disorder?
Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels
The answer would, unfortunately, be no. The truth is that although life with a chronic illness is anything but ordinary, it is one that can be monotonous. In the film Groundhog Day, the life of the main character repeats on an endless loop. The protagonist destined to repeat the same day over and over again. And this description is very much like what it is like to live with a chronic illness.
The reality of living with a chronic illness, it that every day is a repetition of the day before; consisting of the same symptoms. And restricted by the same limitations that these symptoms create.
"The reality of living with a chronic illness, it that every day is a repetition of the day before; consisting of the same symptoms. And restricted by the same limitations that these symptoms create." Share on XThe beauty of the stories captured on screen is the vast array of different scenery; the varied locations in which the characters spend their time.
Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels
For those who are chronically ill, the majority of the time we spend within the confines of the same four walls. And when we do venture, out, we do so too familiar and safe locations.
And much of the time is spent alone; alone in our suffering. When we do venture out, or see people, we only do so when we feel comfortable enough to be seen, or feel somewhat in control of our symptoms. Being in control of something, in life where we think we have very little control.
Financing Between What We Can and Cannot Do
In this mundane and monotonous existence of living with chronic illness, is a need for carefully financing between what we can and cannot do. We wish that we could live like those characters in our favourite films, but unfortunately illness and pain our ability to do so.
Photo by Jessica Lewis from Pexels
Instead, we must carefully budget the limited energy we possess to be able to carry out the most critical tasks on our to-do list. And still, we must ensure that we have enough energy for the next day. As we balance the books between illness and the rest of our lives, the losses we have endured become much more evident.
"As we balance the books between illness and the rest of our lives, the losses we have endured become much more evident." Share on XChronic illness, a constant thief, stealing abilities that once came so naturally. The continuous losses that we experience so cruelly are part of life with a chronic illness that we must grieve. It is not, however, a snapshot of this chronic life that we wish to be captured on screen for others to witness and study.
"Chronic illness, a constant thief, stealing abilities that once came so naturally. The continuous losses that we experience so cruelly are part of life with a chronic illness that we must grieve." Share on XChronic Illness: A Controlling Thief
Watching those characters in our favourite television show or films, they seem so confident; in control of their lives. When living with a neurological disorder, however, much of our control transferred to the disease itself. Symptoms are controlling our bodies, affecting every facet of our lives.
We must learn to accept that for which we cannot control. And to have the courage to change those things that we can. To let go of the life that we dreamed we have, and to embrace the reality of the new life that has entered our life unexpectedly.
"We must learn to accept that for which we cannot control. And to have the courage to change those things that we can. And to embrace the reality of the new life that has entered our life unexpectedly." Share on XExchanging Helplessness For Control in Defiance of the Uncontrollable
We wish we could exchange the feelings of helplessness for being in control in defiance of the uncontrollable. We desperately want to exchange our chronic lives and its debilitating symptoms for something better. A life that largely depends on surviving for a more productive and accomplished existence.
Living with a chronic illness requires constant adaptation, and with its growing what we can no longer do, we must exchange these for what we can. To live with life we can and to try and not dwell on the life we can no longer have. And the wish to exchange this new mundane life for one which is exciting and unique to be on the big screen.
"Living with a chronic illness requires constant adaptation, and exchange what we can no longer do with things that we can. To live with life we can and to try and not dwell on the life we can no longer have." Share on XIllness Is A Motivation Killer
I have great admiration for those characters that demonstrate a great deal of motivation to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. Living with a chronic illness, however, find that my motivation ebbs and flows. It is easy to find the motivation to do something, do anything on those rare good days. On the days where symptoms are unrelenting, it is hard even to find the motivation to get out of bed.
When going through the tough times and find ourselves in the darkness, it can be challenging to claw ourselves out of the dark pit. The motivation to do anything is non-existent.
But dig ourselves out of the pit, we must, to rebuild a life worth living. It may not be the life we had planned, or a story worthy of an Oscar-worthy film. But it can still be a life that we can be proud of; it might not be a normal life, but it is ours.
"It may not be the life we had planned, or a story worthy of an Oscar-worthy film. But it can still be a life that we can be proud of; it might not be a normal life, but it is ours." Share on X
8 Comments
Hi Rhiann, lovely to read your blog again. I totally agree about the film thoughts…I often think I kind of *do* want to watch a film that had chronic illness in it…you see glimpses, with cancer and a fair bit more poor mental health which I think is overall good. There was one with someone with a Parkinson’s or something similar and that was pretty raw, focussed on the relatively really stages but the people in it really struggling with what the future would look like (can’t remember the name of the film!)
Hi Naomi, thank you so much for your kind words. Yes, as much as it would be difficult to watch and possibly frustrated by some of the inevitable errors in the storytelling I think that it’s important for anybody to see aspects of their lives portrayed on screen; to feel represented and feel less of an ‘outsider.’ Watching films as much as I love it, it does make me reflect and think of my life with a neurological disorder as far from normal and further emphasises the feelings of loneliness and isolation. I think I know the film you are talking about, is it possibly the one starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway? I think it was called ‘Love and Other Drugs’. It was a very good film!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts once again, Rhiann! So true that acceptance is a huge factor in living as best as we can when it comes to chronic illness. We’ve had to exchange so much joy and of ourselves as a person already, there’s no point giving it any more of our power!
Thank you so much Sheryl; you have provided terrific inspiration to get the creative juices flowing once again! Yes, acceptance is such an important topic when discussing coping with chronic illness, and is the main reason why the topic comes up so often when writing about the subject. All the best for the remainder of August!! x
Rhiann – I’m sorry you are stuck at this point in managing your condition. I uttterly understand those feelings, as I’ve been there too – multiple times. My goal for now is to take care of myself and do a bit of reassessing. I feel really fortunate to have a group of friends who can and will accept me when I am symptomatic, and are willing to help make sure that I can still participate in things even if I’m a bit shaky. I hope you have, or soon find, friends like that as well!
Balancing the energy books is very hard, I agree – especially because each day may leave you with less energy(and very occasionally more) than you anticipated, so that need to balance and recalibrate is constant, and takes energy itself! From one FNDer to another, hang in there, and you deserve to enjoy your life!
Beautifully written Rhiann, as always – I love reading your blogs. And such a clever way of using the prompts. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much, Jo!
I’m so with you on this. I did actually start writing down the story of my illness, but after the astonishingly quick way it started I realised that the rest of the story is pure monotony. Not an interesting read and certainly not an interesting movie either. Still, we have to make the most of the good days, however few they may be.