Chronic Illness, Autoimmune Conditions & Neurodivergence

Managing Chronic Illness While Neurodivergent

The experience of chronic illness and neurodivergence can be uniquely intertwined, with each impacting the other. Navigating the medical system in and of itself can be a challenging process, as it demands managing appointments, medications, changing routines, and complex information, often requiring a lot of self-advocacy and communication within systems that may not be designed around neurodivergent needs.

When executive dysfunction is at play, it can be extra difficult to seek and maintain the care necessary to manage your health. Sensory and interoceptive differences can add another layer, affecting how you experience, recognize, interpret, or communicate pain, fatigue, discomfort, and other physical symptoms. Additionally, neurodivergent individuals may experience challenges with sustaining or regulating energy, which can be exacerbated by chronic illness and by the many tasks required to manage it.

Research is also increasingly recognizing that some chronic health conditions, including hypermobility-related disorders, occur alongside neurodevelopmental differences more often than previously understood.

Both chronic illness and neurodivergence can greatly impact your sense of self and may involve grieving the life you expected to live. They can also mean continually adjusting expectations, advocating for needs that others may not see, and learning how to work with your body and brain rather than constantly pushing against them.

You might be dealing with autoimmune conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis; connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS); dysautonomia such as POTS; chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia; gastrointestinal conditions such as IBD; illnesses that can cause significant and unpredictable fatigue, such as ME/CFS; or other chronic, invisible, or fluctuating health conditions.

Whether your diagnosis is recent or you've been navigating this for years, at TheraThrive we meet you where you are.

Autoimmune Conditions & Mental Health

Living with an autoimmune condition can affect much more than physical health. Pain, fatigue, cognitive changes, unpredictable symptoms, medical appointments, treatment decisions, and uncertainty about when symptoms may flare can affect school, work, relationships, independence, and emotional well-being.

For neurodivergent individuals, these demands may interact with existing differences in executive functioning, sensory processing, interoception, emotional regulation, and energy management. A change in health can disrupt routines and coping strategies that previously worked, while the work involved in managing illness can require energy and executive functioning that may already be stretched thin.

We understand that psychological support for autoimmune and chronic illness should not begin with the assumption that physical symptoms are psychological. Instead, therapy can provide a place to address the very real emotional, relational, and practical effects of living in a body whose needs may change from day to day.

We work collaboratively with clients and families to understand the whole person, and can support the psychological aspects of care alongside the work of physicians and other medical providers.

Supporting PANS/PANDAS

PANS (Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) and PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal infections) can be especially confusing and overwhelming for you, your child, and your family. Symptoms may or may not appear dramatically or unexpectedly, and can include sudden-onset OCD or restrictive eating alongside anxiety, emotional changes, changes in functioning, tics or other movement changes, sleep disruption, school difficulties, and other neuropsychiatric symptoms.

At TheraThrive, our role is not to replace your child's medical team. Instead, we provide psychological and family support as one part of comprehensive care.

We use a brain-first, trauma-informed approach, recognizing that during periods of significant dysregulation, a child's behavior may reflect what their brain and nervous system are able to manage in that moment, and this is not simply motivation, willingness, nor choice.

Rather than working to get a behavior to stop, we work to understand what may be happening underneath it and what is needed in order to feel safer, more regulated, and better able to access skills.

If your child's functioning (or yours) has changed suddenly, approaches that rely heavily on reasoning, consequences, compliance, or simply trying harder may not address what is driving the difficulty. We work with you to adjust expectations and demands when appropriate, reduce unnecessary conflict, identify accommodations, support regulation, and gradually build skills and functioning as your child (or you)  become more able to to access them.

Psychological care may also address OCD, anxiety, avoidance, emotional regulation, disrupted routines, school participation (or work), family stress, and the emotional impact of experiencing a sudden and sometimes frightening change in functioning. We used our own style of evidence-based approaches, such as trauma-informed therapies, including exposure and a trauma-informed and gentle version of response prevention (ERP) when appropriate for OCD symptoms, and these may be incorporated and thoughtfully adapted to your child's presentation and current capacity. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and PANS Research Consortium support psychological and behavioral interventions as an important part of PANS/PANDAS care.

Just as importantly, we support parents and caregivers. PANS/PANDAS can profoundly affect the entire family, and parents may find themselves trying to understand dramatic changes in their child while simultaneously navigating medical care, school, relationships, siblings, and everyday life.

Our Approach to Chronic Illness

Our approach to supporting clients through chronic illness also takes a trauma-informed lens, acknowledging the depth and breadth of the impact that living with chronic illness can have on your mental health. We provide a neurodiversity-affirming space where we thoughtfully consider the specific ways your neurotype may affect symptom management, healthcare experiences, relationships, identity, and everyday life.

TheraThrive offers support for newly diagnosed individuals adjusting to a new understanding of life; people who’ve been living with chronic illness for years and are experiencing burnout; neurodivergent folks who have felt unheard or invalidated within medical systems; children and families navigating PANS/PANDAS; people struggling with treatment adherence, pacing, or energy management; and more. We’re here to help.

In working with a TheraThrive therapist, care may include:

• Processing medical trauma and distrust of healthcare systems
• Working through identity shifts as health changes
• Navigating grief, loss, uncertainty, and acceptance
• Developing sustainable energy-pacing strategies
• Understanding sensory and interoceptive needs
• Finding strategies that work with executive functioning differences
• Understanding ableism, both internal and external
• Preparing for medical appointments and fostering skills for self-advocacy
• Supporting children and families through changes in functioning
• Reducing conflict and adjusting expectations during periods of illness or dysregulation
• Developing more sustainable expectations for work, school, relationships, and daily life

Help is available now!

If any of the above resonates with you, support is available. Contact us today to schedule a session with one of our qualified, experienced, and understanding therapists. Together, we’ll work to manage the challenges of living with chronic illness while considering your individual needs, strengths, and experiences.