ACT MySelf – An emotional wellbeing tool for people with multiple sclerosis (MS)

Let's begin

Introduction

Welcome to ACT MySelf

Living with a long-term condition like multiple sclerosis (MS) can be challenging. You and your loved ones may experience all sorts of powerful emotions and these may change day-to-day. There may be times when you feel fine and others when you feel overwhelmed by your emotions.

ACT MySelf is a self-help tool to support your emotional wellbeing. It will take you through some simple exercises and enable you to make an action plan (or ACT Plan) to help you deal with the emotional side of MS. The exercises and ACT Plan are inspired by a validated psychological therapy called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) , which has been found to be helpful for people living with MS.1,2

Using ACT MySelf won’t take your emotions away, but it could be a helping hand for the times when you feel that they are starting to take over.

This tool is not intended to replace professional psychological support. It’s important that people living with MS discuss their psychological and emotional wellbeing with their healthcare team.

Who is ACT MySelf for?

This tool is for anyone whose life is affected by MS, including people living with MS and those who love and care for them. 

Mother and son
Young guy
Girl with mobile phone
Grandma and grandson
Smiling woman with a plant
Father with child
Smiling man
Woman is reading

Getting started

There are four parts to ACT MySelf. You don’t need to look at all of the chapters or complete all of the exercises in one go. You can dip in and out of ACT MySelf whenever you like and use it as much or as little as suits you.

The individual ACT MySelf exercises range in length from 2–5 minutes, but this is only a guide; you can make as much or as little of this tool as you wish. You could find that some exercises resonate with you more than others and you may wish to spend more time on these than suggested. That’s okay too, this tool is about what works for you.

  1. MS Trust. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Available from: https://www.mstrust.org.uk/a-z/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy-act (Last accessed: July 2022).
  2. Association for Contextual Behavioural Science. ACT for the Public. Available from: https://contextualscience.org/act_for_the_public (Last accessed: July 2022).

Chapters

Extras