ILLNESS Vs. SICKNESS- ARE BOTH THE SAME?

Illness Vs. Sickness - Are both the same?

I must start this with a disclaimer “Everything in this article is my perspective and has no validation by any medical professional. These are solely my observations from my life experiences. Anything that the reader wishes to absorb and practice must be done under self-discretion and caution”

Well, the year 2022, gave me a going away present so to speak. I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in the month of October 2022. Needless to say, this came with a lot of new normal and emotions and of course lifestyle changes. The extra time which I got because of my activities slowing down, actually gave me lot more perspective.

Let us discuss one such perspective. We often use the work ‘Illness’ and ‘Sickness’ interchangeably. You might be writing a leave application or sending a get-well greeting card to someone or simply chatting with someone, rarely do you give much attention to the difference between these 2 words.

In my view, illness is acquiring a disease, and sickness is how much your body and mind has been affected by the disease. For example, you might fall ill because of a throat infection and fever, but you might or might not feel sick because of it. In my case, Cancer is an illness which I am fighting at the moment, but it however does not make me sick.

Ok, till here, this seems like simple common sense. Let us try to understand what qualifies as sickness. Weakness, fatigue, body pains, Loss of appetite, Headache, drowsiness, depression, melancholy and few more. You will however notice that, I have not mentioned another set of symptoms such as back pain, nausea, rashes, chest pain, stomach pain etc., this is because these are symptoms of “Illness”, Which requires immediate medical attention and not my subject here in this article. ?The feeling of sickness however, occur even when one does not have anything medically wrong with him or her.

If you are feeling sick without a diagnosable physical cause for a considerable time, you might want to consult a clinical psychologist. Because mental health must not be neglected. But, more often than not, the general feeling of being sick stems for factors which you can try and work on yourself. Most of these factors are sucking out energy from you, if you can rectify these, you will spend much less time in your life feeling sick and fatigued.

A.???You are lacking purpose in life:

A surprising number of people live life as a robot or even worse, ATM machine and not pursuing a worthy purpose in life. Notice I said worthy and not wealthy. You might be pursuing money and making loads of it, but if you are not having a greater good in the horizon, you will end up feeling fatigued. You might end up sleeping more than needed, lack energy, feel ghost pains here and there etc. In fact, the root cause for Burnout at work and work stress too is a lack of purpose.

Purpose can be very simple and personalised. I know someone whose purpose is to be helpful to at least one stranger in a month. Another client of mine teaches maths to deserving and needy students that come her way. These are all very simple and very powerful purposes. My personal purpose is to lead my children by example, of virtues which we usually preach to them. Like, when I teach my children that they need to study extra hours before their exams, I make sure they see me waking up at 4.30 am and working on my deadlines. Or because I want them to stand up for themselves, assert themselves without being bullied, I do that when they are around. I could go on but you get the picture.

Don’t overthink purpose, it can be very simple and yet powerful…. but you absolutely need one in life so that every day of yours is filled with energy and you don’t waste it in feeling sick.

B.???Catching the emotional downward spiral:

I have come across this concept from a friend of mine, Vikram Duggal who is a fantastic life coach. Every now and then you will find yourself with some or the other negative emotion, don’t be harsh on yourself, we all go through negative emotions, every day. It is perfectly alright. And emotions have a way of sucking you down causing you to feel sick. Instead, you try and catch the upward spiral. Let us say, you feel rejected at workplace. The downward spiral will lead you in the path of – REJECTION- HURT – FAULTFINDING - ISOLATION.

Contrarily, the upward spiral could be - REJECTION – TAKE FEEDBACK - WORK ON THE FEEDBACK - MAKE NEW FRIENDS AT WORKPLACE

I can guarantee you, any negative emotion that you feel, there exists an upward spiral, catch that one. You will feel more and more energy within you.

C.???You are stuck in the past:

John C Maxwell, in his book Today matters gives a powerful statement. “Yesterday ended last night” So true. And yet, we invest 50% of our energies in yesteryears. What good does this do? Zilch, nil, nada. I know intelligent executives, who at their late 40s still blame their parents for doing or not doing something in their childhood. When 50 % of your energies are spent in yesterday, can you blame your body for living in 50% capacity?

My suggestion is if you have unresolved issues from the past, do not regress them, address them, if possible. Seek help from friends, family, professionals but do not live with them. There will be certain issues, which you can not resolve, “Let those go”. Easier said than done, I know, but it is not impossible. Once you fee your mind from the ghosts of the past, your energy levels will take a leap and you will not feel fatigued, stressed or sick.

D.??Your brain is not producing enough Dopamine:

You might have experienced yourself, sometimes in spite of everything going well in life, we feel sad. As if there is a hole in your life which doesn’t fill, no matter what you do. Professionals attribute this to a lack of Dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurohormone which along with Serotonin, is responsible for general happiness. Dopamine is called as the happy hormone and Serotonin, the feel-good hormone.

Most often, during these phases, one tends to lie low, rest or distract themselves with whatever comes their way. But, very ironically, the best way to sail through this is to produce Dopamine. How do we do that? Most common activities which produce Dopamine are Exercise, Yoga and Walking. ?So, the next time you feel low, go for that walk or hit the gym. I must mention here, that my own fitness routine which I have consistently developed since 2018, has helped me in fighting my cancer and handling the Chemotherapy side effects. Now, even as I have undergone 5 sessions of Chemo, I still work out everyday without fail, either at home or even at my gym. I have been instructed by my doctor not to overdo and listen to my body. But I make sure that I get at least 40 mins workout every day. This helps me avoid all kinds of side effects and stay at my highest functionality.

In addition to the above, certain food such as poultry, tofu and nuts supplement the feel-good hormone serotonin in the body, so maybe the Chicken soup for the soul can be just as simple as that… Grab that chicken soup for a feel-good soul food.

Now, this understanding will help you recoup with actual illness as well. Once you can separate the “Illness” factors and “Sickness” factors, you will be amazed with the speed that you can recover. Never neglect any illness. Go to a good doctor and get treated. This will cure the illness factors. Now, during and post treatment, you can handle the sickness factors such as fatigue, stress, lack of energy like a pro once you have made a Go to routine based on your knowledge of the above 4 factors,

Find a larger purpose and pursue

Catch the upward emotional spiral

Move on from past

Exercise and eat well for Dopamine+Serotonin double blast

I have observed and experienced everything written in this article very closely and personally. In conclusion I trust that you will find at least one useful point from the article and use it to make your life better.?