Social Life Challenges

A person’s social life includes a number of areas:             

  • Interactions with family and friends, which can include romantic partners, children, brothers and sisters, parents, and extended family.
  • Interactions with people and organizations related to your health conditions (e.g., ASOs, support groups).
  • Interactions with people and organizations of interest to you, such as hobby groups and churches.

Challenges in your social life may be due to a number of factors:

  • Fatigue or weakness making it hard to leave the home or to stay out with friends as long as you might like.
  • Pain making it difficult to engage in regular social activities.
  • Digestive issues that make you worry about leaving the home or having people over.
  • A lack of motivation to go out and get involved.
  • Feeling down or anxious might make it hard to get out and interact.

Treatment involves overcoming these challenges:

  • The treatments for fatigue described earlier can help you improve your fitness and conserve your energy so you can get around the way you want.
  • The treatments for weakness described earlier can help you build the needed strength.
  • The treatments for pain described earlier can help you move with less pain.
  • The treatments for digestive issues described earlier can help you feel more confident leaving the home.
  • The treatments for feeling down/depressed and anxious listed earlier can help with those issues.

Other Rehabilitation Therapies

  • If you are facing a lack of motivation, a social worker can explore that with you and suggest some ways to overcome it.