Grieving losses due to arthritis can be difficult.

While you likely know all about your physical arthritis symptoms and how your doctor has chosen to treat them, you may not have received much guidance on navigating the disease's emotional side. It's perfectly normal to feel grief. You are experiencing a loss - whether it’s the loss of the idea of yourself as perfectly healthy or the loss of specific functions you thought you would have for decades to come. Depending on the severity of your arthritis, you may also lose the employment you are accustomed to, or the ability to partake in your favorite activities. In order to manage your feelings of grief and not allow yourself to be weighed down by them forever, you will need to undertake some emotional work. Here are the first steps:

Acknowledge your losses

It is difficult to grieve something you can't articulate. Therefore, the first step in managing the grief your illness may bring you is identifying what you feel you are losing. It may help you to journal on this subject or talk to a trusted friend about it to sort out your thoughts. Make sure you consider everything you are feeling down about, no matter how silly you think it may be. Losing the ability to open a jar unassisted is still a loss, after all, and it may also symbolize anxieties you have about independence, disease progression or something else entirely. The best way to begin to address your grief is to allow yourself space to feel it in as detailed a way as you can manage. This clears the air, as it were, and lets you begin to work through your pain.

Let yourself feel sad

Grief is a complex emotion, and one that may encompass a lot of other feelings as well. You may be angry, sad, guilty or some combination of other emotions. The best thing you can do is to allow yourself to feel these emotions. It is not productive to wallow in them, of course, but take the time to feel sad if you're sad without trying to perk yourself up or think positively right away. If you're angry, get it out - whether you do that best through talking, angry music or even beating the couch with a pillow.

Get help if you need it

If you find your emotions are overwhelming and they're keeping you from performing the day-to-day activities you need to do, it's time to seek some outside assistance. You can start by talking to a trusted friend or family member and seeking his or her advice. You should also speak to the doctor who treats you for arthritis, as he or she has probably seen patients before who went through the same things you are experiencing. Your doctor may recommend therapy or counseling of some kind, which is just as important as the arthritis medications you take.

For more on coping with arthritis:

Tips for Coping with Chronic Pain
Helping Someone Cope with Arthritis
Nine Things Chronically Ill People Want Loved Ones to Know