Fighting the blaze of chronic illness

In 2021, after giving birth to my daughter, my health fell apart. I went from being a healthy, active person in her early 30s to experiencing major digestive issues and acute pain-flares throughout the left half of my body on a daily basis. I experienced this chronic illness like a house fire that would not burn itself out. The frame of my house was charred, the siding peeling, the windows cracked, but the house kept burning somehow.

After three years of bouncing around from specialist to specialist, I landed with a rheumatologist and a functional medicine doctor who diagnosed me with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), Small Intestine Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), an MTHFR mutation, and high sensitivity to environmental toxins. Conditions like these cluster together and snowball. 

As an IFS clinician, I’ve also had the privilege of working with many chronically ill clients, some with diagnoses similar to mine, some on different paths. Through working with my Parts and those of my clients, I’ve witnessed the benefits IFS therapy can offer to people experiencing chronic illness. 

When a diagnosis is called a syndrome, like hEDS and MCAS, this essentially means it isn’t well understood by the medical community, and there are no quick fixes. If there were a magical pill to heal my body, I would have taken it. The path to stabilization for many chronic illnesses is often murky and includes a lot of trial and error. Functional medicine was key to my healing, and Parts of me feel grief over the current politicization of the practice. It is, in fact, possible to find a functional medicine provider who recommends getting an annual flu shot.

I want to be clear that even the highest quality mental health treatment cannot heal chronic illness. IFS has not fixed my body. However, it has allowed me to dip into Self-Energy—the deep well of resilience and persistence that resides in each of us—and it has provided a tangible avenue for getting to know, support, and bear witness to my Parts and their suffering.

One of the major benefits of IFS therapy for anyone is that it facilitates access to Self-Energy. As we get to know and unblend from Parts, qualities like persistence, creativity, and courage become more accessible. For a person experiencing chronic illness, these qualities play a pivotal role in staying the course when seeking diagnosis and implementing treatment.

IFS allowed me to identify and support Manager Parts who were trying to understand and find treatments for my chronic illnesses. My system has a Head Nurse Part who does everything in her power to reduce symptoms and improve my health. She spearheaded overhauling my diet by moving me away from ultra-processed food and anything high histamine (learn more about histamine intolerance) and implementing intermittent fasting. She now manages my supplements, medications, and appointments, and gets me to do the daily stretches assigned by my myofascial release physical therapist. 

All that to say, my Head Nurse Part is competent but tired. She has greatly benefited from Self-led check-ins and support. It’s normal for the inner system to have polarities. To successfully implement the lifestyle changes my Head Nurse Part wanted to put in place, I needed to get some of my Soothing Parts (also known as Firefighters) on board. For example, I have a sweet seven-year-old Part who has used sugar to soothe for almost as long as I can remember. Prior to experiencing acute chronic illness, her habits had minimal impact on my body. But in this version of my body, it takes very little to trigger an MCAS flare. IFS has allowed me to update her and other Soothing Parts on my body’s current limits, hold compassionate space for their grief over these changes, and find new methods for soothing, like taking Epsom salt baths and drinking herbal teas.

IFS offers practical ways to metabolize grief. Anyone experiencing chronic illness knows life changed, maybe on a dime, maybe gradually over a period of time, but for everyone, chronic illness creates a series of losses. Losses in physical ability, social connection, mental capacity, and lifestyle flexibility, to name a few. IFS facilitates building direct relationships with Parts that are angry, sad, and scared about these changes. Parts feel immense relief when they realize they don’t have to be alone with these losses anymore. 

Though I (and many of my clients) continue to live with the losses and limitations brought on by chronic illness, IFS therapy has proven to be an indispensable framework for offering Parts support, connection, and resources. I’m incredibly grateful to say that after years of persistence, my Parts and I have made lifestyle changes and found treatments that are a fit for the body we’re in. The fire might not be entirely out, but it’s no longer blazing. And that is something to celebrate.