Dr. Ingela Thuné-Boyle
Health Psychologist
Online Practice

Living with a chronic illness can quietly erode a person’s sense of self-worth. In a society that tends to prize productivity, independence, and physical vitality, those who live with long-term illness often feel left behind, not only in practical ways, but emotionally and existentially. When illness strips away the ability to work, socialize freely, or participate in daily life without immense effort or pain, it becomes easy to internalize a painful message: I am less worthy

Anger is a powerful and inherently normal human emotion. For those living with chronic illness, it can be a frequent, complex, and often misunderstood part of the emotional experience. While sadness, anxiety, and grief are widely acknowledged emotional responses to illness, anger is sometimes dismissed as inappropriate or unhelpful, even harmful; and it can be. Yet, for many people dealing with long-term health challenges, anger can be a natural reaction to the pain, limitati

Chronic illness presents a relentless challenge, not only to the body but to the human spirit. Living with a condition that does not resolve quickly, and may never fully disappear, demands more than just medical intervention; it requires resilience. Resilience - the capacity to adapt in the face of adversity - becomes a vital psychological resource for those navigating the long, unpredictable terrain of chronic illness.

Among the many symptoms that accompany chronic illness, fatigue is one of the most common, and one of the most misunderstood. Unlike typical tiredness that resolves with rest, chronic illness-related fatigue is persistent, pervasive, and often debilitating. It is not simply a matter of needing more sleep or trying harder to stay active; it is a profound exhaustion that affects the body, mind, and spirit.

Chronic illness can bring immense physical, emotional, and social challenges. Symptoms may be relentless, treatments may fail, and healthcare systems may disappoint. These realities can leave anyone feeling powerless. However, for some, this sense of powerlessness evolves into a victim mentality - a habitual way of interpreting life through the lens of helplessness, blame, and defeat.

Pain is rarely simple, and for many people living with chronic conditions, it is not confined to a single cause. Some experience both neuroplastic pain - pain that arises from the nervous system’s learned patterns of over-sensitization or misfiring - and structural pain, caused by identifiable damage or dysfunction in the body’s tissues, joints, or organs.

Living with a chronic illness reshapes nearly every part of a person’s life, and friendships are no exception. While companionship and connection are fundamental human needs, they can become difficult to sustain or initiate when someone is navigating unpredictable symptoms, physical limitations, or the emotional weight of long-term illness. What many healthy people may take for granted - meeting for coffee, keeping up with texts, attending social events, or spontaneously maki

For many living with chronic illness, the word acceptance can feel loaded, even offensive. It may carry the sting of resignation, suggest defeat, or imply a passive tolerance of pain and limitation. To be told to "accept" one’s condition can sound dismissive, especially when that advice comes from those who do not grasp the daily realities of chronic illness. And yet, paradoxically, acceptance is also a cornerstone of psychological flexibility and emotional well-being.

Living with a chronic illness often involves not only physical pain or fatigue but also the ongoing challenge of explaining your condition to others. For many people with chronic conditions, one of the most exhausting and isolating aspects is the repeated need to clarify, justify, or defend their limitations to healthy people who simply do not understand.

Grief is a natural reaction to loss, but it doesn’t follow the same path for everyone. When a death is sudden, violent, or deeply...

'Medical trauma' refers to a patient's psychological and physiological response to a negative or traumatic experience in a medical...

Medical gaslighting is a subtle yet deeply damaging phenomenon in healthcare, where a patient's symptoms or concerns are dismissed, minimized, or attributed to psychological causes without appropriate investigation. Often rooted in implicit bias, power imbalances, or systemic issues within the medical system, this behavior can lead to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, and a loss of trust in healthcare providers.

The mind-body connection refers to the link between our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and our physical health. This relationship is bi

The connection between narcissistic abuse, trauma, and chronic illness conditions, underscores the profound impact of emotional suffering on

Some people with a chronic illness or with distressing physical symptoms may have experienced trauma in their lives, either as a direct result of their illness or at a previous point in their lives. Ongoing childhood abuse, for example, has been shown to be related to ill health in adulthood, where those who experienced a rough childhood are more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic illness later on in life.

Grief is usually associated with a single event such as the death of a loved one. However, in chronic illness, grief is also very prevalent despite the fact that no one has died. It can be an ongoing issue and is usually associated with many types of losses. Despite this, people don't often associate chronic illness with grief but the realization that life will never be what it was, and the future is not what you thought it would be, is a major loss.

Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) consists of at least four broad domains that can affect or be affected by one's condition and/or treatment: physical, psychological (including the behavioural), social and spiritual functioning.

I've read a few articles lately about what people describe as 'medical gaslighting'. What's usually being referred to here is a tendency...

While healthy individuals are currently experiencing a huge amount of uncertainty and even hardship as a result of the Corona virus, their lives will eventually get back to some kind of normal - maybe even a new normal - but with far less uncertainty. Most will eventually re-establish their routines and feel some sense of control over their lives. However, for those of us with a chronic illness, that sense of future uncertainty was always there and continues to cause havoc wh

So, I've recently experienced quite a major bump in my ever present, complicated relationship with illness. My quality of life has been absolute crap despite my best efforts. I've had endless issues where nothing I did appeared to provide any relief whatsoever. This is not new to me. Indeed, I've been here before. Quite a few times actually yet each time, a quiet sense of despair sets in and my future seem very uncertain and bleak. Basically, I start to lose hope.