A lung disease diagnosis can feel devastating. Pictures of carrying around a bulky oxygen tank or being stuck at a hospital on a breathing machine dominate your thoughts. You may feel like your life is pretty much over. This doesn't have to be the case. Yes, chronic lung disease will make a big difference in your life, but it doesn't have to make you feel like your life no longer has fullness and meaning.

 

Part of the quality of life is how you look at it. For example, a runner who feels all that gives his life meaning will feel he has nothing to live for, while another individual, who lives a basically sedate life may see that some things will need to be done slower, but life continues. Chronic lung disease is the same for both individuals, but the way they look at it determines whether the lung disease diagnosis is going to ruin their quality of life. Attitude also determines how well treatment will work.

 

Take that runner, if he feels that life has dealt him a bad hand, he'll give up, refuse treatment or go about it only half-heartedly. His mindset will, in turn, send messages to his body to give up. However, should he look at it as a way to focus his mental and emotional emphasis in another direction, he can learn to accept his diagnosis. Maybe he will be able to help others or consider it a chance to learn something he never before had time to learn. If he can graciously accept that what is, is he will send his body the message that he will be more surrendered and work with what has occurred. Acceptance does not mean giving up and allowing the chronic lung disease to become all there is, it simply means to stop fighting the reality that it exists but allow yourself, body and mind, to find a way to create a fulfilling life in spite of the disorder.

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