Practical tools for managing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

Topic: Coping Strategies

Adjusting to Serious Illness: Strategies for Patients and Their Families

Ten ways for families to cope with CFS and FM.

Advice to a New Patient

What are the most important things to remember in coping with chronic illness? Read some answers from fellow patients in this article.

Counting Your Blessings: How Gratitude Improves Your Health

New research shows that people who keep a gratitude journal report fewer symptoms and feel better about their lives.

Getting Through the Bad Days

Read guest author Patti Schmidt's strategies for handling relapses.

Habit Change & Rules: Two Keys to Improvement

Two strategies that help when old habits make symptoms worse.

Health Logs: Big Payoff on a Small Investment

A few minutes a day of record keeping can produce big benefits.

Illness and Housekeeping

Housekeeping can feel overwhelming if you have a serious illness. Here's how one patient transformed clutter into order.

In Praise of Solitude

CFS patient JoWynn Johns describes how she found blessings in solitude.

Key 2: Use Multiple Coping Strategies

How to develop an individualized self-management plan. (From the series 10 Keys to Successful Coping.)

Making a NOT TO DO List

One way to improve quality of life is by having a NOT TO DO list, suggests guest author Eunice Beck.

Mastering the Phone with CFS & FM

Tips for making the phone a friend.

Minimizing Flares with the Relapse & Special Event Worksheets

Understand and take control over setbacks using these two worksheets.

Minimizing Relapses

Relapses are a frequent and often demoralizing part of chronic illness. Learn how to reduce their frequency and severity.

Optimism, Hope & Control: Attitudes & Health

Science has shown a link between attitude and health. Here's how a change in attitude can help you feel better.

Personal Guidelines For Managing Chronic Illness

Having your own rules for managing illness can guide you forward and bring clarity in times of confusion.

Planning Worksheets: A Tool for Pacing

How to use daily and weekly schedules to bring stability to your life.

Sensory Overload: Sources and Strategies

One cause of confusion and other CFS/FM symptoms is too much sensory information. Read about causes, treatments and prevention.

Seven Strategies for Reducing Guilt

Practical responses if you feel guilty for being sick.

Smooth Moves: Eight Tips for Moving

How to make a move without crashing.

Stranded in the Grocery Store: How to Avoid Crashing While Shopping

Five strategies for preventing a collapse while away from home.

Strengthening Intimacy: Six Strategies That Help

Strategies for improving intimacy.

Surviving the Holidays

Tips for reducing stress and increasing enjoyment of the holidays, offered by guest author Karen Lee Richards.

Ten Keys to Successful Coping (2005)

Revised version of a series on how to live well with long-term illness.

Ten Tips for Travel

How to enjoy travel when you have a long-term illness.

The 1% Solution

The secret to improving with CFS and FM? Think small.

Using Targets to Improve Health and Gain Control

A series of small steps leads to dramatic improvement.

Why Do Some People Not Get Better?

Well-known CFS/FM physician Dr. Charles Lapp offers some answers and some strategies.

Writing Is Good Medicine

CFS/FM writer Lisa Lorden Myers explains how writing can improve your health.

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