Navigating Friendship Through Chronic Illness

Friendship IRL

This episode, about navigating friendship through chronic illness, is deeply personal to me.

In last week’s episode, I shared about my own recent health issues, but I think this information is good to have no matter your situation. Chances are, chronic illness will impact somebody in your life in your lifetime.

Today’s guest is Catherine, a business coach, founder of Catherine LifeDesign, and a survivor of chronic illness. Here, Catherine shares about her “perfect storm” of life events – including a miscarriage and Hashimoto’s disease diagnosis – that resulted in a severe health crash.

Chronic illness is hard. There is no exact solution on how to navigate friendships around this; it’s so personal and so nuanced. But my hope is that this one more story out there offers ideas on how to deal with this if it’s impacting your own life.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• Catherine’s dream life: a successful business, a tropical Mediterranean home – and how it all fell apart with her three-year illness that stumped so many doctors
• The power of the friends who kept calling and asking how she was – a simple thing that offered comfort and support thousands of miles away
• The skill of managing your own emotional state and seeking the right support when you need it (and the importance of supplementing with professional support)
• The skill of rebuilding relationships, which Catherine learned on her healing journey, and how she views and interacts with friends now
• How friendship roots change when somebody goes through a major life change or illness (and how that impacts the work required to maintain the friendship)

Resources & Links:

Follow Catherine on Instagram and on her website.

Like what you hear? Visit my website, leave me a voicemail, and follow me on Instagram and TikTok!

Want to take this conversation a step further? Send this episode to a friend. Tell them you found it interesting and use what we just talked about as a conversation starter the next time you and your friend hang out!