Radically Accepting the Diagnosis

There are moments where life just shakes you. Where things go from normal to not-so-normal in the blink of an eye. For many of us, that very thing has happened upon hearing that we have something wrong with our health. Upon receiving our diagnosis.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past 12 years of knowing that I have familial hypercholesterolemia (genetically high cholesterol), it’s that acceptance leads to freedom. Here’s what I mean...

Resisting the truth gave me false protection

There was a lot of resistance when I first found out I had a genetic disorder. Thoughts like, "This sort of thing happens to other people, not ME," "I will be able to cure myself naturally," and "This isn’t serious" permeated my mind.

And, in a sense, it was easier to resist the truth. Resisting the truth gave me a false level of protection, like a weighted blanket keeping me calm. Resisting the truth kept me from feeling all the emotions that come with a diagnosis of a chronic health condition, like grief, fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion, and loneliness. Resisting the truth made me feel normal.

But I’m not normal.

Getting closer to acceptance

Resisting the truth did nothing for my health. My cholesterol levels stayed high, the natural remedies didn’t work, and high levels of LDL flowed through my arteries. This resistance trapped all of the aforementioned emotions inside my heart.

There wasn’t a specific moment — it was more of the cumulative moments of doctor's appointments and Google searching — that led me towards acceptance. But eventually, I got closer and closer to it.

I started medicine. I spoke to a therapist. I learned more about FH and my risk factors, and I finally accepted myself as different, as 1 in 250 people who have this life-threatening genetic condition.¹

A formula for freedom

One of my best friends once told me this equation: pain x resistance = suffering. She explained to me that when things are painful and we resist that pain, we suffer. And that’s exactly what I experienced with resisting the truth of my diagnosis early on. Conversely, we determined that pain x acceptance = freedom.

Accepting the truth, the diagnosis, doesn’t change the fact that there is a diagnosis. It doesn’t take away the grief from not living a "normal" life. It doesn’t take away the fear and anxiety that surround medical tests and medication side effects. It doesn’t take away the sadness, anger, and confusion of conflicting information and uninformed doctors. And it doesn’t take away the loneliness experienced by being 1 in 250, but here’s what it does do...

Acceptance allows me to love and care for myself

Acceptance takes away the layer of resistance. It allows me to be kind to myself. It allows me to understand that the diagnosis is my truth, it’s part of me, and there’s nothing wrong with me because of it. It allows me to care for myself with kindness and compassion and inspires me to advocate for those who also have this condition, which actually does help with the feelings of loneliness.

Acceptance allows me to be someone with a chronic health condition who loves herself and takes really great care of her body, alongside an incredible team of medical professionals, while building a community of FH Warriors bound together through social media.