Understanding some basic assumptions about family stress may help families to better cope with stressors as they present themselves in the course of a chronic condition. There are predictable points of family stress. A family may cope well with a child's disability until it prevents the child from undertaking a life event that would normally occur. For example, entering school or joining an athletic team . Examine your own circumstances and identify points in time or events likely to be difficult.
Families vary in their level of tolerance for the family member's physical condition.
One family may deal with chronic pain by seeking appropriate assistance and taking an aggressive approach to the challenge of pain management. Others may be so saddened and despondent by watching their loved one suffer that they are unable to problem solve. List them and brainstorm positive approaches to managing them. Families under stress tend to hold on to previous patterns of behavior or responses to stress. Families react in a variety of ways to stressful events.