Dr. Ingela Thuné-Boyle
Health Psychologist
Online Therapy

Living with a chronic illness is already a profound challenge. It often requires immense physical endurance, emotional strength, and a support system that understands the unpredictable and often invisible nature of long-term health conditions. But when someone with chronic illness is also in a narcissistic relationship - whether with a partner, parent, or close family member - the burden can become exponentially heavier.

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.

Human beings are wired for connection. From the earliest moments of life, our nervous systems develop within the context of relationships, and this interdependence continues throughout our lifespan. One of the most profound ways we influence one another is through co-regulation; the process by which two or more people attune to each other’s internal states, providing a stabilizing influence on emotional, mental, and even physical functioning.

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.

In recent years, a troubling trend has emerged in the online presence of some healthcare professionals: the mocking of patients and their conditions on social media. What might seem to a doctor like lighthearted banter, professional critique, or debunking of pseudoscience can, in fact, come across as dismissive ridicule of people’s suffering. Terms such as “adrenal fatigue,” “chronic Lyme,” or “mitochondrial dysfunction” often become punchlines, shorthand for what some profes

For many people, especially those living with an invisible or poorly understood condition, seeing the doctor can feel like an empty, even humiliating experience. At its best, medicine has always been a collaboration built on inquiry, listening, and the belief that every symptom tells a story worth investigating. Yet today, particularly for those with chronic, complex, or invisible conditions, appointments can instead feel like empty rituals; brief, dismissive, and devoid of g

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

Living with chronic illness often requires a level of self-advocacy that goes far beyond what most people experience in healthcare. It means repeatedly explaining your condition, asserting your needs, correcting misunderstandings, and sometimes challenging authority. When the stakes are your health, dignity, and quality of life, speaking up for yourself is not optional, it’s essential. And when something goes seriously wrong, making a formal complaint is sometimes the only wa

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.

Intermittent reinforcement is an unpredictable and inconsistent pattern of rewards or responses (i.e. a pattern where affection, approval, or connection is unpredictably given and withdrawn). It has profound psychological and physiological consequences, particularly when experienced in close relationships. Common in emotionally abusive, manipulative, or unstable environments, this behavioural pattern keeps individuals locked in cycles of confusion, self-doubt, and emotional d

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.

Health psychology is a vital and evolving field that explores how psychological, behavioural, and social factors influence physical health and illness. While traditionally associated with chronic illness, pain management, and health behavior change, health psychology also plays a critical role in addressing trauma and grief. These profoundly human experiences, which are often undetectable by medical tests, significantly impact both mental health and physical well-being.

Medical gaslighting is a term used to describe situations in which healthcare providers dismiss, minimize, or misattribute a patient’s symptoms, concerns, or lived experiences, often suggesting that the problem is psychological or not real. This can involve telling patients their symptoms are “all in their head,” exaggerating, or caused by stress, despite clear distress or evidence to the contrary.

Grief is an intensely personal, unpredictable, and nonlinear experience. It touches every corner of a person’s life - mental, emotional, physical, spiritual - yet society often treats it as something to be managed quickly, quietly, and within an arbitrary timeframe. When individuals fail to conform to these unspoken rules of "acceptable mourning," they may be met not with empathy, but with judgment, discomfort, or outright criticism - a phenomenon known as grief shaming.

Experiencing a major bereavement is among the most painful and destabilizing events a person can face. When that loss is traumatic, unexpected, violent, or profoundly significant, it can leave deep psychological scars. For someone already living with a chronic illness, the impact of traumatic grief is compounded, creating a complex intersection of physical vulnerability and emotional devastation. Navigating this dual burden can feel like trying to heal two wounds at once

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...