Chronic Health Conditions
Living with a chronic health condition can look different for everyone. For some people, this may be something they have been managing for months or years. You may already understand your condition medically, but still find that it affects your mood, energy, relationships, work, identity, or sense of control.
For others, the experience may still feel new. You may have recently received a diagnosis, started treatment, experienced an injury, or noticed a change in your physical ability. If you are still in the early stages of processing what has happened, you may find our page on Adjustment to Illness and Injury helpful.
This page focuses more on the emotional and practical impact of living with an ongoing health condition over time, including flare-ups, uncertainty, treatment stress, pain, fatigue, and changes in daily life.
What is a chronic health condition?
A chronic health condition is a long-term health issue that continues over time or needs ongoing care. It may be stable, unpredictable, progressive, invisible, or come in flare-ups.
Chronic health conditions may include:
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Autoimmune conditions
- Chronic pain
- Heart disease
- Cancer-related health changes
- Neurological conditions
- Gastrointestinal conditions
- Long-term fatigue
- Skin conditions
- Hormonal or endocrine conditions
Some chronic conditions are visible to others. Many are not. This can make it difficult when people say things like, “You look fine,” even when you are in pain, exhausted, or struggling internally.
Your lived experience matters. Support is not only for the medical side of illness, but also for how it affects your quality of life.
How can chronic illness affect mental health?
Chronic illness and psychological wellbeing are closely connected. Your physical health can affect your mood, thoughts, energy, sleep, relationships, and ability to cope. At the same time, stress and emotional distress can make it harder to manage symptoms, treatment, and daily life.
This relationship can work both ways.
For some people, chronic illness affects the body systems involved in stress, mood, concentration, pain, sleep, and energy. Some conditions may directly involve the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, or inflammatory processes. This means that changes in mood or thinking are not simply about “mindset”. They can be part of the wider experience of living with illness.
Chronic illness can also affect different stages of life in different ways. You may feel one way before a diagnosis, another way during tests and treatment, and another way again when learning to manage the condition long term.
Common challenges may include:
- Fatigue
- Pain
- Sleep changes
- Brain fog or concentration difficulties
- Changes in work, school, or family roles
- Relationship difficulties
- Changes in intimacy or sex
- Financial stress
- Uncertainty about the future
- Feeling misunderstood by others
Some people may also turn to unhelpful coping strategies when things feel too heavy, such as withdrawing, overworking, alcohol use, drug misuse, or avoiding medical care.
Psychosocial support can be incredibly important. It gives you space to understand what you are going through, strengthen coping skills, and reduce the emotional load of managing a long-term condition.
What emotional responses are common?
There is no correct way to feel after being diagnosed with, or living with, a chronic condition.
You may experience:
- Anxiety about symptoms or test results
- Sadness about what has changed
- Anger toward your body or situation
- Grief for your previous lifestyle
- Shame about needing help
- Fear of being judged or misunderstood
- Guilt about cancelling plans
- Frustration with medical uncertainty
- Hopelessness during flare-ups
- Pressure to “stay positive”
- Desire to search for answers
These feelings can come and go. You may feel okay one week, then struggle again after a flare-up, medical appointment, or reminder of what has changed.
Adjustment is not a one-time event. It can be an ongoing process that changes as your body, life, relationships, and needs change.
Why do I feel like I have lost control?
Chronic conditions can affect your sense of control because symptoms may not always follow a predictable pattern. You may do everything recommended and still have a difficult day.
This can feel deeply unfair. You may start to monitor your body closely, avoid activities, or feel anxious about making plans.
Therapy can help you notice when your mind gets caught in unhelpful thinking patterns, such as “I cannot cope”, “my body has failed me”, or “I will never enjoy life again”.
It can also help you identify what is within your control, what is outside your control, and how to respond in ways that support your wellbeing.
Pacing and energy management can be especially important. This means learning how to balance activity and rest, rather than pushing through until you crash or avoiding everything out of fear.
When To Seek Help
You may benefit from therapy if your chronic health condition is affecting your emotional wellbeing, relationships, daily routine, work, studies, or sense of self.
Consider reaching out if you notice:
- Constant worry about your health
- Persistent sadness, anger, or numbness
- Loss of interest in things you used to enjoy
- Difficulty sleeping
- Avoiding social situations
- Feeling like a burden
- Feeling disconnected from your body
- Panic before medical appointments
- Difficulty following treatment plans because you feel overwhelmed
- Feeling hopeless during flare-ups
- Struggling to explain your needs to others
Your pain does not need to be visible. What matters is your lived experience and how your quality of life is being affected.
Some people wait because they think therapy is only for severe depression or major trauma. In reality, therapy can also help with uncertainty, stress, identity changes, grief, body confidence, relationship strain, and everyday coping.
Please seek urgent support if you feel unsafe, at risk of harming yourself, or unable to cope.
In Singapore, you can contact emergency services at 995 or reach out to Samaritans of Singapore at 1767.
How Can Us Help You?
At Us, we understand that healing from these traumas is not a standard method; we work to provide you with a safe, non-judgmental space to process your experiences and work towards recovery.
With the help of the DSM-5, clinicians will review the criteria to check whether your circumstances meet the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis.
However, even if an individual does not meet the exact criteria for a diagnosis, they can still receive treatment for their symptoms. We work alongside evidence-based techniques and will collaborate with you to determine what works best for you and your unique journey.
Experienced Therapists
Our processes and quality assurance is led by Dr.Emma Waddington, a UK-trained senior clinician psychologist and Founder of Us Therapy, with over 20+ years of experience in helping individuals in Singapore.
Holistic & Personalised Approach
Our clinicians draw from various therapeutic models to create a holistic approach. At Us, we have seen hundreds of clients and we recognise that each individual is unique. Our approach is tailored to you but always includes customised treatment plans and integrative techniques.
Thorough Assessment
At Us, we pride ourselves on our comprehensive assessment processes. We will undergo a thorough assessment process with you in your first sessions before we come up with a plan for your therapy.
Our Therapists
Therapy Approaches
Psychological therapy can help people feel less impacted by physical symptoms, improve wellbeing, and build a greater sense of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy means feeling more able to cope, make choices, and take helpful action even when symptoms are present.
Your therapist will work with you to decide which approach best fits your needs, goals, and pace.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT helps you understand the connection between your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and behaviours.
CBT is widely used in physical health, medical, and rehabilitation settings. It can support people living with pain, fatigue, anxiety, low mood, treatment stress, health-related fears, and changes in daily functioning.
For example, you may think, “My body always fails me.” This thought may lead to sadness, fear, withdrawal, or giving up on activities that still matter to you.
CBT can help you:
- Notice unhelpful thought patterns
- Reduce health-related anxiety
- Build practical coping strategies
- Challenge all-or-nothing thinking
- Manage avoidance
- Rebuild confidence gradually
- Develop pacing and activity-management skills
CBT does not ask you to pretend that symptoms are not real. Instead, it helps you respond to symptoms and difficult thoughts in ways that reduce distress and support your quality of life.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT can be especially helpful when symptoms cannot be fully removed or controlled.
ACT does not ask you to like your illness or pretend that it is easy. It helps you change your relationship with difficult symptoms, thoughts, and emotions, while still taking steps towards what matters to you.
A simple way to understand ACT is:
- Open up to difficult experiences with less struggle
- Be present with what is happening now
- Do what matters, guided by your values
For chronic health conditions, ACT may support you in:
- Living with uncertainty
- Weathering difficult flare-ups
- Reducing the struggle against painful emotions
- Clarifying what matters to you
- Making meaningful choices despite symptoms
- Building psychological flexibility
- Taking effective action during difficult moments
Values are a key part of ACT. For example, you may not be able to control every symptom, but you may still choose actions that connect you with family, creativity, learning, rest, faith, movement, or contribution.
Compassion-Focused Therapy
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) can be helpful when chronic illness brings shame, body-image struggles, self-criticism, exhaustion, or the feeling that your body has failed you.
Compassion in therapy is not about being “soft” or pretending things are fine. It is about learning to relate to distress with courage, wisdom, and kindness.
CFT is informed by psychology and neuroscience. It explores how our threat system can become highly activated when we feel unsafe, judged, ashamed, or overwhelmed. For people living with chronic illness, this threat system may be triggered often by pain, flare-ups, medical appointments, uncertainty or feeling misunderstood.
CFT can help you:
- Reduce harsh self-criticism
- Understand shame and threat responses
- Build a kinder relationship with your body
- Respond to distress with more steadiness
- Develop soothing and grounding skills
- Support body-image adjustment
For some people, the idea of “self-compassion” can feel difficult at first. This is especially true when you feel angry at your body or disappointed by what has changed. In therapy, we can start gently with the idea of relating to distress with kindness, one step at a time.
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, or EMDR, may help when a medical experience, accident, procedure, diagnosis, or health scare still feels emotionally “stuck”.
For some people, the distress is not only about the condition itself. It may also come from a frightening hospital experience, emergency treatment, sudden pain, loss of control, or memories of being dismissed or unsafe.
EMDR is best known as an evidence-based treatment for trauma and post-traumatic stress symptoms. Reviews and meta-analyses have found that EMDR can reduce PTSD symptoms and other trauma-related distress.
This may be relevant for people with chronic health conditions when their illness journey includes traumatic or highly distressing experiences. EMDR may help the brain reprocess these memories so they feel less vivid, overwhelming, or present in daily life.
There is also emerging research on EMDR for chronic pain. Early studies suggest that EMDR may have potential in chronic pain management, although the evidence is still developing and more high-quality research is needed.
EMDR may support you if you experience:
- Distressing memories of medical procedures, accidents, or hospitalisation
- Panic or fear before appointments
- Strong body reactions when reminded of your illness or injury
- Avoidance of treatment, rehabilitation, or medical settings
- Fear that your body is unsafe
- Trauma symptoms linked to pain, diagnosis, or health scares
Your therapist will first assess whether EMDR is suitable for you. They will also help you build grounding and coping skills before processing distressing memories, especially if your health condition is ongoing or your nervous system feels easily overwhelmed.
Counselling for Couples, Partners and Carers
Chronic health conditions can affect more than the person diagnosed. Partners, family members, and carers may also experience stress, worry, grief, role changes, communication difficulties, and burnout.
You may find that your relationship changes when one person needs more care, rest, reassurance, or practical support. Intimacy, sex, finances, household responsibilities, and future plans may also be affected.
Counselling can support couples, partners, and carers by helping them:
- Communicate needs more clearly
- Understand each other’s emotional experiences
- Navigate role changes
- Reduce guilt, resentment, or helplessness
- Set healthier boundaries
- Strengthen connection during difficult periods
- Plan practical support together
Support does not mean blaming anyone. It means creating space for everyone affected to feel heard and better equipped to cope.
What To Expect
Initial Consultation – A Space to Be Heard
The first session is all about getting to know you. It is a conversation—one where you can share what is been on your mind, what has been feeling difficult, and what you would like support with. Your therapist will ask questions about your background, experiences, and goals, but there is no pressure to answer any questions—just a safe space to begin.
Questionnaires & Onboarding Surveys – Understanding the Full Picture
To help tailor therapy to your needs, you may be asked to fill out some brief questionnaires before or after your first session. These can give insight into things like mood, stress levels, relationship patterns, or coping strategies. They are not tests—just tools to help your therapist understand how best to support you.
Individual Therapy Sessions – Your Journey at Your Own Pace
Each session is a step forward in your journey. Therapy is not just about talking—it is about discovering new ways to navigate life’s challenges, make sense of emotions, and feel like you are getting the most out of your life. Depending on your needs, sessions may focus on:
- Exploring patterns of thought and behavior
- Understanding past experiences and their impact on the present
- Developing practical coping tools
- Strengthening emotional resilience
Feedback Sessions – Reflecting and Adjusting
After the first few sessions (or after assessments), a feedback session provides space to reflect on how therapy is going. This is a chance to talk about what has been helpful, what you would like more of, and how therapy can continue to best serve you.
Intervention – The Heart of Therapy
Intervention is where meaningful change happens. Every therapy journey is unique, and the approach will be shaped around what works best for you. Some common approaches include:
🌱 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – Helping to identify and shift unhelpful thought patterns, reduce anxiety, and develop healthier ways to cope and new patterns of behaviour.
🧠 Schema Therapy – Deep, transformational work to uncover long-standing patterns that might be keeping you stuck, often rooted in early life experiences.
💙 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – Learning to handle difficult emotions with self-compassion and move towards what truly matters in life.
🌊 Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) – A powerful approach for healing trauma and distressing memories, helping the brain reprocess them in a way that feels less overwhelming.
🧘 Mindfulness-Based Approaches – Building self-awareness, grounding techniques, and ways to manage stress and emotions with greater ease.
Fees
Individual Counselling Rates
Clinician type
Fees and Duration
Clinic Founder
$325
Principal Psychologist
$305
Senior Clinical Psychologist
$277
Educational Psychologist
$277
Clinical Psychologist
$251
Senior Counsellor
$251
Counsellor
$185
Associate Counsellor
$120
Phone calls / Emails
Clinicians rate pro-rata (10 Mins)
FAQs About Chronic Health Conditions
Is it normal to feel anxious about my health?
Yes. It is common to feel anxious when your body feels unpredictable or when you are waiting for results, starting treatment, or managing symptoms.
Can chronic illness cause depression?
Not directly. Chronic illness can increase the risk of depression, although not everyone with a chronic condition will experience it. Living with ongoing symptoms, pain, fatigue, medical appointments, lifestyle changes, uncertainty, or changes in independence can take a real emotional toll.
Therapy can help if the depression becomes constant, affects your sleep, leads to avoidance, or makes it hard to enjoy daily life.
Can therapy help if my condition will not go away?
Yes. Therapy may not remove the condition itself, but it can help change how you experience and respond to your symptoms.
For example, therapy can help you understand your triggers, pace your energy, manage difficult thoughts, reduce avoidance, and respond to flare-ups with more confidence. It can also help you communicate your needs more clearly, make decisions that feel aligned with your values, and feel less alone in the process.
Over time, this can support a greater sense of stability, self-efficacy, and vitality. In other words, therapy can help you feel more able to live meaningfully, even when symptoms or uncertainty are still present.
The goal is not to force acceptance before you are ready. The goal is to help you build a life that feels more supported, connected, and worth living.
Do I need to talk about my medical details in therapy?
Only as much as feels helpful. Your therapist may ask about your condition to understand how it affects your daily life, mood, relationships, identity, and coping.
You do not need to explain every medical detail. Therapy focuses on your lived experience, not just your diagnosis.
Can therapy work alongside my doctor or specialist?
Yes. Therapy can be an important part of joined-up care, especially when a chronic health condition affects both your physical and emotional wellbeing.
Your psychologist can support the emotional, relational, and psychological parts of your experience while you continue receiving medical care from your doctor, specialist, physiotherapist, or other healthcare professionals.
With your consent, your psychologist can also correspond with other professionals involved in your care where appropriate. This can help everyone better understand your needs and support you in a more coordinated way.
The aim is to create a support system around you, rather than leaving you to manage each part of your care on your own.