By Julie Eller, co-host of the Live Yes! With Arthritis Podcast
In thelatest episode of the Live Yes! With Arthritis podcast我和丽贝卡有幸与娜塔莉·达蒂洛(Natalie Dattilo)博士聊天，她是一位临床健康心理学家，也是布莱根妇女医院心理服务主任。我们得问问达蒂洛医生身体形象、自尊和关节炎之间的关系，以及我们如何改变对患关节炎的身体的看法。
我记得在我十几岁的时候，我沿着泽西海岸的木板路散步，在那里度过了许多个夏天，沐浴着阳光和海洋的空气。一家冰沙店的门前挂着黑板，欢迎人们走进他们的商店，那里展示着拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生(Ralph Waldo Emerson)的一句话，这句话一直在我的脑海中挥之不去:“健康是第一财富。”
作为一个患有慢性疾病的年轻人，我对这句话思考了很多。如果我没有一个完全健康的身体，我怎么能获得真正的“健康财富”?我怎样才能在我的精神和身体之间建立一种充满健康的关系，尽管我的病情长期疼痛?
在与关节炎抗争了二十年之后，我仍然在与那种认为我的关节炎会让我更不健康的看法作斗争，即使我的关节炎处理得很好。我一直想重新认识健康的含义。我们很多患有关节炎的人都有健康的生活习惯，吃得好，尽我们最大的能力锻炼，然而，因为我们的诊断，我们陷入了慢性疾病的范畴，并不总是感觉它完全代表了我们的健康。
In this recurring internal monologue, I find myself arguing that people living with chronic illnesses can still be healthy, can still have ideal bodies, can still accomplish that wealth that Emerson talked about so long, as we reframe our perception of the ideal healthy body. It all comes back to our understanding of our own bodies and how we perceive them; in other words, it comes down to our body image and our self-esteem.
I particularly enjoyedrecording this latest podcast episode,as we explored with Dr. Dattilo how managing chronic arthritis affects our perceptions of our bodies and the impact that can have in our lives. We also talked about ways we can reclaim a more positive body-image perception and a more confident sense of self-esteem.
I know that our conversation helped me break free of my internal monologue a bit, and really remember that even with arthritis, we can achieve the kind of wealth that Ralph Waldo Emerson celebrated: health.Tune in to the episode today!
