Maintaining your mental well-being can go a long way to helping you prepare for the challenges of living with pulmonary fibrosis.

Key Facts

  • It is important to be aware of and look after your mental health
  • Maintaining a healthy mindset can make it easier to live with pulmonary fibrosis
  • Different strategies can help you maintain your mental well-being through the difficult periods

Mental well-being describes your mental state – how you are feeling and how you cope with day-to-day life.

As well as physical symptoms, pulmonary fibrosis can affect your mental well-being. For example, you may start to experience a low mood if you lose your personal independence, experience relationship problems or worry about a loss of control.

Maintaining a healthy mental well-being can go a long way in helping you prepare for the challenges of living with pulmonary fibrosis. Some of the benefits of a healthy mind are:

  • Feeling confident in yourself – you value and accept yourself and judge yourself on realistic and reasonable standards
  • Maintaining positive relationships with other people
  • Being productive in your day-to-day life
  • Coping with the stresses of daily life and managing times of change and uncertainty

Maintaining a healthy mindset

Whether you currently have difficulties with your mental well-being or not, there may be times that are more difficult than others. The ability to keep a healthy mindset during difficult periods is called “resilience.”

Below are some tips to help you maintain your resilience, so you can deal with everyday life and difficult situations without feeling overwhelmed.

Tips to help you maintain a healthy mindset

Talk about how you feel

Talking something through and knowing that there is someone to listen and understand can make you feel much better. Your friends, family or a mental health professional may be able to offer you practical help or advice and give you another perspective on your disease.

Build healthy relationships with people

Spending time with supportive family members and friends can help you build a better self-image and feel more confident as you approach challenging situations.

Sleep

Trouble sleeping can have a serious impact on your mental well-being. Feelings of low mood and other negative emotions can be exaggerated. Try to get plenty of sleep and speak to your healthcare team if you are having trouble sleeping.

Diet

Eating healthily can help both your physical and mental health. Eating a balanced diet at regular mealtimes will help you to feel healthier and support a positive mindset.

Physical activity

Staying active can help reduce any feelings of depression and anxiety and boost your self-confidence. Light activities like gardening or gentle walking are a good place to start if you’re not used to doing a lot of physical activity.

Do something you enjoy

Find time to do things you enjoy, whether it’s cooking, seeing your friends or listening to music. Taking up a new hobby can also help boost your confidence and occupy your mind.

Relax

It’s important to make time to relax, even if you don’t feel under stress at the moment. This could involve spending an evening doing something you like, or even taking a short five-minute break to quietly observe your surroundings. Learning a relaxation technique, such as breathing exercises, yoga, or meditation, can also help you relax and reduce stress.

Taking care of yourself

Through different strategies, you can help to manage your mental and physical health with pulmonary fibrosis.

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