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Take Care of Your Emotional Health
After learning that they have heart failure, people are usually confronted with a confusing array of feelings. Shock, fear, doubt, and anger are all normal reactions when people learn they have a chronic disease. Maybe you have even had these feelings. How you deal with these intense feelings, and come to terms with your disease, will depend on your personality and coping style.

Research shows that there are many healthy ways of coping. Evidence suggests that people who cope best with a chronic illness:

• maintain an optimistic attitude
• seek out information about their disease
• approach events in a problem-solving way
• enlist support from family, friends, and their doctor.

It’s also important to recognize when feelings become too intense to handle or when sadness turns into major depression. Many people with CHF experience symptoms of depression. Signs include a loss of interest in everyday activities that lasts longer than two weeks.

If you think you may be depressed, it is important that you tell your doctor. That’s because depression is associated with worse outcomes in heart failure.

Research shows that sharing fears and anxieties can help you both emotionally and physically. You may want to:

• talk to friends and family about your feelings, or speak with a counselor or clergymember
• join a support group
• start a journal.