Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
Continuence of Phase 3:
Understanding Your Family and Friends.
(Family Systems)
Chronic illness is a family illness. When one member of a family becomes sick, it affects everyone. Normally, a family stays in balance with its own set of unwritten roles and rules. Roles involve poeition (Whoe is the breadwinner? Who takes out the garbage?). Roles always change as the patient needs todo less and shifts tasks to others. Rules are values; they can be about communication (Who can say what to whom?), emotioni (Who isallowed to be sad?),education, sex, religion, and parenting.
Most important for people with hep c are the family rules and values about health and illness. Problems arise when your family rules (or the rules of the family you grew up in) clash. Can you take time off if you have a cold or noly if you're deathly ill? How do you handle the medical system?
Testimony:
My husband and I are having a hard time about my hepatitis C. He's an exercise nut and overdoses on vitamins. I do what my doctor tells me, and that's enough. My husband is constantly after me to change my lifestyle, and I get exasperated. I want to shout at him, "Leave me alone. I'll do it my way!"
Janice
Boundaries.
Family create different boudaries. Some are so enmeshed that it's hard to tell where one member befins and another ends. The knowhow to pull together but need to learn how to allow outsider to help. At the other end of the spectrum is the disengaged family where members have a high degree of autonomy and very little strong communication with each other. The need ot learn how to draw closer together, so they can hear each other and support one another. Most families, of course, fall somewhere in between these two extremes.
Testimony:
My sister wouuld say, "Come on, let's go shopping." I didn't want to go because the interferon treatment made me tired. I knew she'd get mad if I had to leave in a couple of hours. So I'd say no. Then she'd glare at me and preach to me. She was always trying to control me.
We had a blowout. We had been inseparable, and suddenly we weren't speaking.
Sally
Chronic illness can cause disorganiation, but this crisis can open more options and choices as the family modifies and changes it's rulesa and values.
Testimony:
My mom always said it was hard to believe someone was sick unless you could see a bleeding wound. But she stuck up fo rme all through my interferon treatment. Even though she's 85, and you'd think it would be hard for her to change, she was---and still is---the one person who understands what I"m going throught.
Pete
Families also go through life stages that have their own issues of separateness and connectedness, from the birth of a child to taking care of elderly parents. When illness occurs, it can disrupt the normal tasks of these life stages. Suppose, for example, that hepatitis C strikes a parent of a teenager. The teenager will feel pulled by conflicting forces: the need to sepatate and develop a life with peers versus the need to pull closer to the family. In this setting the adolescent must cope with developoing separateness and freedom and providing more help with household or other chores.
Communication and openness are the keys to improving the level of undersstanding within your family. When fa mily members talk about a problem in terms of shifts in roles, rules and life stages, it diffuses the personal element. Usually, people feel hurt when a conflict arises because the think the other family members don't care about htem. When you define the problem as a conflict in family roles, balues, or degree of separation/connection, youcan work toward a resolution.
Suppose, for example, that George wants his wife, Susan to come with im to all his medical appointments. Meanwhile, Susan has had to take a part-time job to heal pay the bills. Even thought it's no one's fault, she's angry. Susan can't doit all, and her former role as the family's primary emotional support needs to be modified. Instead of blaming each other and feeling unloved, Susan and George talk about he role changes and come up with a compromise. Susan will go to the important medical appointments, and George will ask his sister to accompany him to the routine ones.
Do people want to change a family system? No, but illness brings unavoidable changes and therefore, a feeling of loss of control. You cna choose to be angry, or you can decide what can be changed and what cannot. How can we figure out a new system that's fair to everybody? What roles and values can we let go or modify?
Next: Tools for Wellness: Some Practical Suggestions.
Understanding Your Family and Friends.
(Family Systems)
Chronic illness is a family illness. When one member of a family becomes sick, it affects everyone. Normally, a family stays in balance with its own set of unwritten roles and rules. Roles involve poeition (Whoe is the breadwinner? Who takes out the garbage?). Roles always change as the patient needs todo less and shifts tasks to others. Rules are values; they can be about communication (Who can say what to whom?), emotioni (Who isallowed to be sad?),education, sex, religion, and parenting.
Most important for people with hep c are the family rules and values about health and illness. Problems arise when your family rules (or the rules of the family you grew up in) clash. Can you take time off if you have a cold or noly if you're deathly ill? How do you handle the medical system?
Testimony:
My husband and I are having a hard time about my hepatitis C. He's an exercise nut and overdoses on vitamins. I do what my doctor tells me, and that's enough. My husband is constantly after me to change my lifestyle, and I get exasperated. I want to shout at him, "Leave me alone. I'll do it my way!"
Janice
Boundaries.
Family create different boudaries. Some are so enmeshed that it's hard to tell where one member befins and another ends. The knowhow to pull together but need to learn how to allow outsider to help. At the other end of the spectrum is the disengaged family where members have a high degree of autonomy and very little strong communication with each other. The need ot learn how to draw closer together, so they can hear each other and support one another. Most families, of course, fall somewhere in between these two extremes.
Testimony:
My sister wouuld say, "Come on, let's go shopping." I didn't want to go because the interferon treatment made me tired. I knew she'd get mad if I had to leave in a couple of hours. So I'd say no. Then she'd glare at me and preach to me. She was always trying to control me.
We had a blowout. We had been inseparable, and suddenly we weren't speaking.
Sally
Chronic illness can cause disorganiation, but this crisis can open more options and choices as the family modifies and changes it's rulesa and values.
Testimony:
My mom always said it was hard to believe someone was sick unless you could see a bleeding wound. But she stuck up fo rme all through my interferon treatment. Even though she's 85, and you'd think it would be hard for her to change, she was---and still is---the one person who understands what I"m going throught.
Pete
Families also go through life stages that have their own issues of separateness and connectedness, from the birth of a child to taking care of elderly parents. When illness occurs, it can disrupt the normal tasks of these life stages. Suppose, for example, that hepatitis C strikes a parent of a teenager. The teenager will feel pulled by conflicting forces: the need to sepatate and develop a life with peers versus the need to pull closer to the family. In this setting the adolescent must cope with developoing separateness and freedom and providing more help with household or other chores.
Communication and openness are the keys to improving the level of undersstanding within your family. When fa mily members talk about a problem in terms of shifts in roles, rules and life stages, it diffuses the personal element. Usually, people feel hurt when a conflict arises because the think the other family members don't care about htem. When you define the problem as a conflict in family roles, balues, or degree of separation/connection, youcan work toward a resolution.
Suppose, for example, that George wants his wife, Susan to come with im to all his medical appointments. Meanwhile, Susan has had to take a part-time job to heal pay the bills. Even thought it's no one's fault, she's angry. Susan can't doit all, and her former role as the family's primary emotional support needs to be modified. Instead of blaming each other and feeling unloved, Susan and George talk about he role changes and come up with a compromise. Susan will go to the important medical appointments, and George will ask his sister to accompany him to the routine ones.
Do people want to change a family system? No, but illness brings unavoidable changes and therefore, a feeling of loss of control. You cna choose to be angry, or you can decide what can be changed and what cannot. How can we figure out a new system that's fair to everybody? What roles and values can we let go or modify?
Next: Tools for Wellness: Some Practical Suggestions.
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