The relationship ripple effect

At the start of this blog, I explained how Gut Brain Disconnect has impacted me with my health - so I thought I should touch on how it's impacted those around me and a key part in life: relationships.

When I think about the term 'relationship' my immediate go to is romantic relationships, but this term also covers family, friends, work/colleagues, pets and your own relationship with yourself. As a result, for the next few weeks I'm going to touch on how long term illness has effected each of those relationships, at least in my experience. This week though I'll just keep to a general overview. 

I think it's safe to say that any kind of illness you experience will affect your day to day relationships; whether it's just a cold making you more irritable than normal, or something more long-term, anything 'out of the norm' will always shift the balance and make simple small things a little more difficult, a form of ripple effect if you will. Ultimately, it comes down to when we're not feeling our best, we're likely not being our best. This could result in being less patient or understanding of the world and our fellow humans, meaning the smallest things can be blown up into conflict or an issue that didn't exist before. So when you've been unwell for a long time, it can feel as though giving an honest answer to 'how are you' will just disappoint the ones you love, because it can feel as though you're not getting better fast enough for them or yourself, adding on more pressure to something that needs the opposite. Long term illness can also be a big test for any relationship, with romantic and family relationships taking the largest strain as they're usually the ones closest to you day to day. 

I could easily ramble on more about this, but I'll leave it there for this week. Ta ta for now! 

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