Chronic illness

It is natural to hold onto memories of what gave us joy, whether that involves experiences or images of friends and loved ones. However, when something, such as a chronic illness, makes the images fade, we either adjust to the new reality or pretend the changes haven’t occurred.

Everyone wants to be happy. But it might make more sense to sneak up on happiness by reducing misery. Here are six proven strategies you can use today.

Helpless? Everyone at one time experiences it due to aging, declining health, shattered relationships, or deteriorating world conditions. The way we confront the feeling shapes our lives. I learned how to deal...

There are more things that can cause depression as we age. I can’t run as fast or as far as I did ten years ago, my weight only fluctuates upward, I take more time to process information, and I feel under...

An exclusive About.com caregiving article by Stan Goldberg I sat with my brother-in-law who lived with a chronic illness and reminded him of the enormous number of people he touched during his life. We both...

We often underestimate the need for introducing stability in the lives of people living with chronic and progressive illnesses. In Part I of this three-part series, I explained the role of stability in aging....

I came to an understanding about the need for stability when faced with two financial choices. Regardless what I chose either outcome would be fine, unlike a situation in the past were I was forced to choose...

THOUGHT OF THE DAY. For two years, the first thing I experienced when I woke and the last thing I felt before falling asleep was pain in my thigh from a less than successful hip replacement. I began a life of...

Someone living with a chronic illness often can't think past today's pain or discomfort. If they can, their focus may be on wondering when the momentary relief will end or how soon the pain will...

suicide often involves facts we don't understand

10/31/14-While filling out my absentee ballot I had the shocking realization that choosing politicians is like living with a chronic illness  With chronic illnesses people often are forced to make choices...

06/09/14  A friend I know for more than 20 years asked to speak with me about a life-threatening illness. He didn’t want medical advise. He was interested in how he would be able to emotionally deal with a...

I was asked to join Thich Nhat Hanh, Jane Goodall, Norman Fischer, and other writers I have long admired in contributing to Shambhala Sun’s July 2013 special edition on the body. In my article, I relive...

What would you do if you learned from this moment until you died you would be in pain? Not something mild like an occasional headache, but something that overwhelms every one of your thoughts, feelings, and...

How we view ourselves—our identity—is based on what we do, the roles we play, activities we enjoy, affiliations we have, the values that structure our lives, our abilities, and relationships.  When a...

Many people believe that everyone lives in the same world. At an event, we all see, smell, taste, or touch the same things, and therefore, our experiences are identical. But when we crunch the information into something that goes beyond observations, unique worlds—ones we may not understand—are created.

It was an invitation that made no sense. I was asked to be a special guest of the South Korean Ministry of Tourism and KMI International, a company that markets medical tourism. Why me, I wondered? As I re-read the invitation, I remembered another strange offer I received in the 1970’s during a tense period in Israeli-Arab relations. “Hello Dr. Goldberg,” an official from the Jordan Ministry of Education had said. “We’d like to know if you would be interested in coming to Ramallah to conduct a seminar on stuttering therapy this summer.”

A client who was dying once said to me, “Every day I feel as if I’m on one of those exercise boards that rest on a ball. Just when I steady the damn thing, it starts moving and I’m struggling again to balance myself. Why don’t people realize that’s what my life has become?”

When a sleep disorder forced me to retire at 57, and six months later I developed prostate cancer, I reacted to life as if the music had stopped.