Chronic Illnesses
A Chronic Illness or Disease is one that is long lasting or recurrent. The definition of 'chronic' as defined in the freedictionary is:
- Of long duration; continuing: chronic money problems
- Lasting for a long period of time or marked by frequent recurrence, as certain diseases: chronic colitis
- Subject to a habit or pattern of behavior for a long time: a chronic liar
A person with a chronic illness or disease is not going to get better in the short term, in fact they may never recover from what they are suffering with!
Many chronic illnesses are not obvious to other people. Examples include:
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- rheumatoid arthritis
- osteoarthritis
- asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Diabetes
- Autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus
- Osteoporosis
Of course there are many others, but the above list highlights the problem that many sick people have that is their illness is not obvious to other people!
Often it is a sympton of the disease, and not the disease itself, that causes serious difficulties for the suffer. The classic example is pain. Pain can be so debilitating that suffers can barely walk or stand or hold anything. Painkillers rarely seem to work for this level of pain, and they can add extra problems such as affecting the sufferer emotionally.