Dita: How does talking about feelings help people with MS?
Professor Rona Moss-Morris: Well, you know, I think there’s been a culture and I think sometimes these are very culturally defined, depending on your own local environment, but there’s also things like the stiff upper lip in the UK, you know, that you should be able to cope, you should be on top. And part of what we’ll be talking about in Thought Sort is sometimes how thoughts are not all that helpful. But one thing about talking about feelings is it helps us process and deal with them and that if we just pretend they’re not there, sooner or later, sadly, they catch up with us. And then also, sometimes emotions can become very overwhelming and then they can get in your way of being able to function properly. So particularly if people get very, very depressed or distressed, or very, very anxious, then that actually stops you being able to do what you need to do in your day-to-day lives and then it’s crucially important that you get the help you need in those situations.
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Professor Rona Moss-Morris is Chair in Psychology as Applied to Medicine at King's College London. Her research has focussed on understanding adjustment to chronic illness from patient and family perspectives, and developing self management and CBT techniques for illnesses such as multiple sclerosis.