Getting Well
WELCOME!
If you have chosen this Getting Well section because you or someone you love is dealing with an acute, painful, or life threatening illness or a chronic condition that affects your quality of life, we have extensive resources to help you at this challenging time. In this section we will concentrate on those segments of our site that can support your immediate needs.
WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?
Travis Illness-Wellness Continuum is reprinted with permission, from Wellness Workbook, 3rd edition, by John W. Travis, M.D., and Regina Sara Ryan, Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA. ©1981, 1988, 2004 www.wellnessworkbook.com
Everyone is somewhere on the Travis Illness-Wellness Continuum. Right now you are somewhere on the left half — dealing with symptoms or an official diagnosis of a disease or health condition. This AHHA website offers you resources to support your journey as you move towards the right on this continuum.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
It is important for you to learn as much as you can about your condition and related treatment options — preferably from a neutral source that does not provide care or sell products. Knowing the full range of options available to you allows you to make decisions from a position of choice.
To help you do that, AHHA offers the Treatment Researchers list with professional organizations that research treatment options and answer health-related questions. Some are allopathic in approach, some are alternative, and some are a combination of both. Some charge a fee. Some are free. They are not there to make decisions for you. These organizations provide you with credible data, so that you can make your own choices about what is right for you.
A HOLISTIC APPROACH
When dealing with an illness it is often difficult to focus on the fact-finding and decision-making that is necessary. It is natural to experience many powerful emotions and you can easily be overcome with fear, confusion, and anger. Your day-to-day schedule may be totally disrupted, your family may be needy, and your ability to deal with even the most mundane activity may be compromised.
Please remember that you are more than just your illness or symptoms. You are a whole, made up of interrelated parts. Everything about you and your life is important and deserves to be taken care of at this time. Your Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual aspects depend on one another for well-being. When one is disrupted, the others suffer as well. This concept is referred to as a whole person or holistic approach.
To learn more about this concept and to understand how it can enhance your healing journey, you may wish to read one or more of the articles at What is Holistic?
To further help you incorporate this concept into your personal holistic approach we offer you our booklet, Wellness From Within: The First Step. This booklet will help you understand the power of your choices and the importance of being an active participant in your healing. It reminds you of the power you do have, at a time when you may be feeling very powerless, and it explains your role in your relationship with the healthcare professionals supporting you on your healing journey.
YOUR PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT TEAM
Obviously, your highest priority is to get well. Of course, you are in charge and ultimately any decisions regarding your healthcare will be made by you, but you probably feel the need for professional support to help you develop and implement your healing program. You may wish to have just one professional advising you, or you may prefer to have a team of healthcare professionals offering a variety of perspectives and healing therapies.
If your situation calls for diagnosis and treatment of a serious condition, you need to have at least one licensed physician-level trained healthcare professional on your team. A physician-level professional might be a medical doctor, osteopathic doctor, naturopathic physician, chiropractor, or doctor of oriental medicine. You can augment your team with a nutritionist, wellness or lifestyle coach, and/or practitioners of one or more alternative therapies.
It is important to research all of your treatment options. Consider those options that you feel are appropriate for you and identify what type of training and experience would be needed in the healthcare professionals on your team. The following links will take you to lists offering referral sources to help you locate new healthcare professionals to add to your team. Take advantage of these resources to make your search easier.
- The AHHA Practitioner Members list is a searchable database that includes a wide variety of healthcare professionals who all work in partnership with their patients/clients and who encourage a holistic approach to wellness. Each listing includes the type of healthcare professional, what he/she offers, and pertinent training information.
- The Practitioner Referral Sources list is a searchable database of almost 100 healthcare professional organizations, educational institutions, or marketing services for practitioners. You may wish to start by doing a search for the healing tradition you seek — such as Medical, Homeopathy, or Chiropractic. If you need a medical doctor, you can separate out those referral programs that have at least some MDs by typing “md” in the Keyword search box before hitting the Keyword Search button.
Choosing a new doctor can be daunting. As you begin your search, write down what is most important to you. Is it someone who will listen? Someone with the specific training you need? Someone who will work with you without the use of drugs? Whatever it is you are looking for, writing your needs down, in priority order, will prevent you from getting sidetracked and will help you to be certain the healthcare professional you find can give you what you need. No matter who you have on your team, it is wise to have at least one professional who is trained and licensed at the physician level.
For more specific guidelines for selecting a new healthcare professional we offer several articles on How To Find The Right Healthcare Professional For You.
TAKING CARE OF ALL OF YOU
As you gather your healthcare team and start the treatment program of your choice, don’t neglect the rest of your life. For information on how to care for your whole self, you can refer to the articles in the Holistic Perspective for Dealing with an Illness category of our Self-Help Articles collection. These articles are arranged under various sub-categories. If you are discouraged, try Faith and Perseverance. If you need encouragement to be an active participant, try Take Charge. True Stories may provide you with the inspiration you need at this time.
ONGOING CONNECTION
As you progress along your healing journey, there are many ways we can continue to be a resource for you. Monthly and weekly we email out materials you may find interesting. Why not sign up for our Free eReports, so we can stay in touch?
- MONTHLY – Each month we distribute our AHHA Special Updates eReports, which include:
- Featured Research Item — Credible science-based research results that you might not otherwise hear about.
- Featured Issue Item — Opinions from both pro and con sources about a health or health-freedom issue, so that you can make well-informed decisions.
- Featured AHHA Resource Item — By featuring one of many resources in the AHHA website each month, you eventually learn about everything.
- WEEKLY – Each week we select one of our self-help videos and one of our self-help articles and feature them on AHHA’s home page. You can check into our home page weekly OR have the convenience of an eAlert about the Featured Article of the Week delivered to you personally.
AHHA-YOUR PERSONAL RESOURCE
We hope that this section of our website has given you the information you need at this critical time in your life and look forward to the day that we add your successful healing story to the Journey To Wholeness – True Stories section of our Self-Help Articles.
Please let us know if our materials helped you find what you needed, or if there are other ways we might be of help. You may contact us by email at mail@ahha.org or by phone at (714) 779-6152.
This special section for those dealing with an illness or health condition has introduced you to the resources in our website we believe will be of most value to you right now. But there is so much more! For an overview of what we have available for you, visit our Sitemap.
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