Turning Knowledge Of Your Symptom Cycle Into A Powerful Tool
Life with chronic illness can feel like a continual cycle of symptom flares followed by building yourself back to baseline.
It can feel frustrating to continue to go through the process. On repeat. But, you can use your knowledge of your symptom cycle to empower yourself and find practical ways to apply that knowledge to live well with chronic illness.
I have been going through a less serious, but protracted, symptom cycle myself. While it is certainly not the most intense health struggle I have been through, it is still bringing up frustrations and thoughts around the process of symptoms impacting my day-to-day life and how I build back to my baseline.
While each of our symptom cycles is unique, I have noticed that my clients and friends living with chronic illness seem to be pretty aware of their symptom cycles and the ways that can impact their life. It got me thinking about how this information can be a practical tool for getting ourselves through it.
What Do I Mean By Symptom Cycle?
Most people I know who live with chronic illness, including myself, go through some type of cycle of a symptom flare followed by a process of building back their health and wellness afterwards.
While some people experience a fairly regular cycle of symptoms (e.g., significant shifts in symptoms based on their menstrual cycle), others may experience symptom cycles on a more irregular basis or over a longer period of time. While the cycle is not always predictable or regular, many of us living with chronic illness know firsthand what I am referring to.
Some common symptom cycle triggers that I see with my chronic illness coaching clients include:
Menstrual cycle
Weather patterns (i.e., heat, cold, air quality)
Environmental (i.e., allergic reaction or sensitivity)
Times of stress
Overexertion
Lack of rest
Travel
Getting sick (i.e., common cold, flu, COVID)
Medical treatment or medication cycle
Wild card (i.e, no apparent trigger)
Now that I have explained what I mean by symptom cycles, I want to share how you can use the knowledge of your symptom cycle as a powerful practical tool.
When you take a step back and look at your symptom cycle with a wide angle lens, you might see some patterns. What are potential triggers? What is the frequency? How long does it last? Do you feel the same every time? What helps you to get yourself through it?
If you notice some pattern to your symptom cycles, you can use that knowledge to help support yourself through it, treat yourself with compassion and patience, and possibly build back to baseline faster - if that is possible.
Using the information on what can trigger your symptom cycle can be helpful to set realistic expectations for yourself and meet yourself where you are. You can plan ahead if it is expected, or it can give you peace of mind as to why certain times feel worse than others. If there is no predictable trigger or timing to your symptom cycle, you can still use the knowledge of what typically happens during your cycle to help manage expectations of yourself during that time.
To help you empower yourself through your chronic illness symptom cycle, I want to share five tips that have helped me and my clients.
5 Tips For Turning Your Knowledge Of Your Symptom Cycle Into A Powerful Tool
1. Notice symptom pATTERNS AND TRIGGERS, if any, and use that as information for future decisions and planning.
For the symptom cycle triggers that you can anticipate, it can be a helpful tool to plan ahead for what you need to help you get through it and to get yourself back to baseline. This might mean not scheduling big commitments or obligations when you know that you will need some downtime. For example, if your symptoms are tied to your menstrual cycle, you know with some certainty when you will feel your best and when you will feel your worst. While it is not fun to know that you will feel awful on schedule, it can be helpful to plan for it.
2. Use your prior experience and expertise on yourself and your symptom cycle to know what nurtures you best.
For example, if you know that you need significantly more sleep during a symptom flare, that is truly helpful information. Once you know that, it can be easier to give yourself permission to make rest happen and plan for it.
3. Find the right treatments and healthcare providers to help support you from a medical or integrative perspective.
Sharing your knowledge of your symptom cycle with your healthcare providers can help them to support you. Sometimes we don’t realize how helpful this information can be to our healthcare providers. You might want to share it with them if they don’t already know.
4. Know that the symptom cycle will do it’s thing, and it will pass.
When you know that symptoms will subside, it can be helpful to not put too much pressure on yourself during the worst of it. For example, if you have serious brain fog during certain times, it can be helpful to put off brain-heavy tasks to a time when you feel a little better.
5. Have Self-compassion and patience!
Knowing where you are in your symptom cycle can help you to meet yourself where you are. You can either pull back on your expectations of yourself or work on building back depending on how you are feeling. For more reading about having self-compassion when living with chronic illness, check out this blog post.
Reminding yourself that you are not really in control of your symptom cycle can help you to give yourself compassion. Most of us are not in the position to make our chronic illness or symptom cycle go away. It is important not to beat yourself about it. You deserve kindness and patience. Be the first to give that to yourself!
Notice Your Symptom Cycle
For support noticing your symptom cycle, check out my Chronically Well Coaching Membership. It’s a membership, an app and a coach right in your pocket!
The symptom cycle is unique to each of us. That is just one of the reasons that we are our own best experts.
If you are feeling a lot of frustration due to the cyclical nature of chronic illness symptoms, I urge you to reach out to both healthcare providers and mental health professionals. It is completely normal to find the cycle annoying and exhausting. But, you can get support - whether that is with symptoms or the emotional side of things.
I urge you to use what you know about your symptom cycle to support yourself through your cycle the best you can.
Most importantly, be kind and patient with yourself. You deserve that love!
What Have you noticed about your symptom cycle? How can you use that knowledge in a practical way?
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