Building Emotional Resilience When You Have Cold Agglutinin Disease

Emotional resilience is a term used to describe how people respond to changes and their ability to adapt to stressful situations. Being resilient doesn’t mean that people don’t experience or feel the stress but it refers to how quickly they can “bounce back” or adapt to crises. Resilience can be learned by practicing certain patterns of thought and behavior.

Living with a chronic disease, such as cold agglutinin disease, means dealing with a number of symptoms that affect daily life. Although no studies have been done specifically on the emotional resilience of patients with cold agglutinin disease, a study involving participants with other rare diseases was published in Quality of Life Research, which indicated that emotional resilience was associated with better physical and emotional functioning.

Here are some tips to help build emotional resilience:

Build connections with others

Building a good social support network can be important for mental health and emotional resilience.

A support network consists of friends, family, or co-workers — people you can call when you have good news, or need a little extra help. Focus on building relationships with compassionate people who will support you in building emotional resilience.

For some people, joining a support group is a good way to form social connections and work with others to build emotional resilience.

Practice self-care

Self-care means taking care of yourself and making sure that you eat and drink well, get enough exercise, and are as healthy as you can be. Some people may find that a short walk in their daily routine helps them emotionally, while improving their physical fitness. Others may benefit from a short nap during the day.

Try to avoid negative coping habits such as alcohol or nicotine.

Find purpose

Everyone struggles with finding and pursuing personal goals at some point. Finding ways to give back or volunteer in your community can be a good way to increase feelings of connection with other people and the community at large, as well as to foster feelings of purpose. Try to find ways to keep moving toward your own personal goals as well.

Adopt healthy thought patterns

Adopting and maintaining an optimistic outlook can be an important part of emotional resilience. It’s easy to say “be positive” and “don’t think negative thoughts,” but it’s much harder to do in practice. Many people find that keeping a journal is a good way to keep thoughts in perspective.

Get help when needed

Many people may need a little help to develop emotional resilience. If this is the case for you, talk to your healthcare professional, who can recommend support groups and counselors.

Last updated: March 25, 2020

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Cold Agglutinin News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.