Family and relationships

Your friends and family will be happy to see you are getting better, but they may still be overprotective of you. They may also struggle to understand why your interests and hobbies have changed. Your critical illness will have been a worrying and stressful time for them as well. Talking through your experiences and sharing your concerns with each other can be a very good way of managing your relationships and understanding one another.

When recovering from a critical illness, it is common to have some anxiety about sex. You may have a reduced sex drive or be concerned that sex will be harmful for you. As with other forms of exercise, you will need to pace yourself and only do as much as you feel comfortable with. Talking with your sexual partner about your concerns can help to make you both feel more relaxed about having sex.

A small number of people may have developed a medical problem during their admission such as impotence, if you are worried talk to your GP. For information on breathlessness and sex please visit the British Lung Foundation’s website found towards the back of the booklet.