Inspiring and empowering people to maximize their quality of life in spite of a chronic health condition or a disability

STEPS TO CHANGE

  Issue # 10                                                                                                                                                                            March 2005

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      IN THIS ISSUE

 

TRAVELS WITH TRISH

FEATURE ARTICLE The Ups and Downs of Depression

FEEDBACK FORUM

CHUCKLES TO LIGHTEN YOUR DAY

FR~EE RESOURCES

WORDS TO CONSIDER

ABOUT TRISH

 

A chronic health condition can be a catalyst for personal growth and self-discovery. 

Are you ready to break free of the bindings that are holding you back from discovering your own personal level of optimal health?

 We all have one – no matter what the condition is that ails us.  

I challenge you to want to discover yours!

I take people from an overwhelmed existence to a comfortably paced lifestyle. 

Are you ready for that journey?

Contact me today for a fr~ee sample coaching session and get started on living your maximum life.

TRAVELS WITH TRISH

Sorry I missed connecting with you in February.  This has been an awful winter for viruses.  At the moment I'm on my 5th bug in the past 11 weeks.  February was a write-off for me.  Heeding an "Attitude of Gratitude" despite, I'm grateful that my MS hasn't flared up as a result of my immune system over-activity.  I suspect that's because I'm getting LOTS of rest.  Sometimes I do follow my own advice!  LOL!!! <laugh out loud>

I did manage to get back down to CP24 early this month.  This time I got to see David Onley himself.  I'm excited to say that they gave me a contact at Breakfast Television to score an interview on that show.  I'll keep you posted on how I make out on that front.

This past Thursday I participated as an exhibitor at the Abilities 2005 event.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is the largest disability-related trade-show-type event in the Greater Toronto Area, in Ontario perhaps.  About half of the exhibitors were companies looking to hire people with disabilities and the other half were companies that offer services to people with disabilities.  It was a great show, as usual.  The people at Future Abilities and Creative Employment (FACE) organize this on an annual basis and somehow manage to outdo themselves each year!  Check out their website to learn about all their good work.  

To those of you who met me at that event and subscribed to my newsletter when you entered my raffle:  Welcome to my readership!  I truly appreciate your interest.

The most exciting news that I've received since the last time you heard from me is that I've been contracted by the Town of Georgina to provide Disability Sensitivity Training to their entire municipal staff!  As a Disability Awareness Coach, I look forward to the opportunity to educate and sensitize our local municipal employees on how to serve, support and respond to people with disabilities while treating them with respect and dignity.  I feel that this aspect of my business nicely compliments the one-on-one coaching that I do with individual clients who live with various health challenges.  Click here to read about this in the Georgina Advocate.

FEATURE ARTICLE

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF DEPRESSION

Some people have depression as a primary condition and others may have depression secondary to some other condition.  Depression isn’t a moral weakness or a result of being “lazy”.  Depression is a real, physiological condition caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain

Symptoms of depression can manifest themselves in many forms.  For some it’s a constant fatigue with a sense of apathy and a total lack of motivation.  For others it may be an inability to cope with stress of any kind or a feeling of being on the brink of tears or rage most of the time.   Depression can bring a heavy sadness that infects every part of our lives.  Winston Churchill experienced depression and called it the “black dog”.  Some of us describe it as a black cloud that hangs overhead from morning till night.

Depression can often be accompanied by anxiety and vice versa.  Symptoms of anxiety-related depression can include a feeling of heaviness on the chest, a shortness of breath, tightness in the stomach area or full-out nausea.  This type of depression can leave one feeling like “something bad” is about to happen for no apparent reason and often disrupts restful sleep.

We’re all familiar with the stigma attached to depression but some have found a way to self-accept in spite of this.  Others find it difficult to acknowledge the condition and are tempted to “put it on the back burner” when it’s not a major force in their lives.

Counseling, therapy and psychiatry all have roles to play and do offer benefit to some, but for others, the support of an empathetic close friend, a life coach or a self-help group is the answer.

Meditation, yoga, prayer and exercise are all cited as coping strategies for living with this pervasive condition, but for some, there’s no substitute for the right medication.  Many have had to go through the trials and frustration of finding the right medication and the right dosage.  It’s a challenge for certain but for those who’ve found relief at the end of this process, there’s no doubting the benefit of seeking treatment.

As with medication for any condition, there are often side effects to contend with.  Anti-depressants can cause side effects ranging from dry mouth and weight loss or weight gain to sexual dysfunction including erectile dysfunction, vaginal dryness and loss of libido.  Some medications have more side effects and some have less.  Finding the right medication requires both a good relationship with your doctor and sometimes an ability to do a little research on your own.

In the end, the healthiest strategy for coping with depression is a high level of self-awareness and acceptance of the reality of the condition.  As they say, “knowledge is power”.  A well-informed understanding of depression provides realistic expectations and a sense of control over the unknown.  It's definitely a roller coaster but remember… the ride WILL end soon.

FEEDBACK FORUM

BMW is a medical office administrator living with Sjogren's Syndrome & Sceroderma

CHUCKLES TO LIGHTEN YOUR DAY

FR~EE RESOURCES

TeleSupport Group

Support for People with a Chronic Health Condition

(membership is a $10 per month value – yours FREE)

Held the 1st Thurs of every month 7:00 to 8:00 pm (Eastern)

What's a TeleSupport Group?

Glad you asked that!  It's like an in-person support group meeting in that there is a facilitator (me) and there'll be participants (yes, hopefully you) and we'll be getting together to share the challenges and successes we've experienced living with a chronic health condition.  The differences are that you don’t have to leave your house, you don’t have to drive to some distant location and you don’t even have to get dressed! 

How do I join?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TeleClass

Essential Elements of Living Well with Chronic Illness

A multi-part series - content changes every other month

(this event is a $30 per month value – yours FREE)

WORDS TO CONSIDER

I've been working with a client who is a quadriplegic. I've been helping him to find ways to maximize his independence and relieve some of his reliance on his family.

His live-in caregiver quit without notice in December and since then we'd had a really hard time finding part-time or full-time help to fill her shoes. This was causing a great deal of stress on the whole family, to say the least.

As well, I'd been looking at a way to enable him to serve himself when he needs a drink (he spends allot of time alone). We brainstormed many options and tried numerous things but we just couldn't get it to work.

We had a clear tube running down into a water container hooked on the back of his wheelchair but we couldn't resolve how to make the tube accessible to his face and stay there.

There's a goose-neck type bendable device on the other side that brings the laser switch for the chair operation up to his face. What we needed was something like that for the water tube but we didn't want to spend allot of money to experiment with something that might not work in the end.

Since my husband is pretty handy, I asked him if he could design something, maybe an arm that we'd mount on the back of the chair and strap the water tub to.  That night he went to work and checked out the materials shop to see what he could come up with.

When he got home from work the next day he hands me this package that is all covered in dust and says "Do you think this might work?"

Low and behold it was EXACTLY the same as the goose-neck device already on the client's chair!  The guy who runs the materials shop said he had no idea where it had come from and that it had likely it had been there many years (it WAS covered in dust) but he'd never seen it before.

Two days later, while at a meeting I was attending for the first time (and not since), I met a woman who was looking for a full-time live-in caregiver job. She's now working for my client and he's getting the care he needs.

There's no doubt in my mind that God was helping me to help this family. I feel blessed to have been a part of that process.

Never hesitate to bring your troubles to your Higher Power. He's waiting for the first opportunity to support you. There's nothing too small or insignificant in His eyes.

ABOUT TRISH

Trish Robichaud is a Maximum Life Coach living with multiple sclerosis and major depression.  She's grateful to have been blessed with a God-given, instinctive ability for seeing assets in people and then reflecting those assets back to them. This enables her clients to confidently reach for and unleash their full potential.  

She facilitates TeleClasses and a monthly TeleSupport Group at no charge to participants as well as publishes a free monthly electronic newsletter.  Her background is in business with training in supportive counseling and life skills facilitation.  

Together with her experience advocating for people with disabilities, this makes her ideally suited to coaching others through their life and vocational transitions. She can be found on the web at www.ChangingPaces.com.