If you are diagnosed with a chronic disease, the shocking news can often lead to confusion and depression. Just the thought of the illness indefinitely affecting various aspects of your life can be overwhelming. And yet at the same time, you'll find there is so much you need to do: learn about the illness, decide on a suitable treatment, and adjust your lifestyle. This could mean leaving jobs or negotiating more flexible work hours as well as, perhaps most importantly, coping with a gamut of unpleasant emotions, including anxiety, emptiness and even anger.

The Japan Chronic Disease Self-Management (J-CDSM) Association, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization, offers to help the chronically ill with patient-to-patient workshops. The group uses a structured program, originally developed by the Stanford University School of Medicine, in California, that has proved successful and been adopted in more than 20 countries around the world.

Staffed by people who are suffering chronic diseases themselves, the J-CDSM, which launched in October 2005, has served more than 1,000 people in Japan. While a number of patient advocacy groups and self-help groups exist in Japan for specific illnesses, the J-CDSM is unique in that its program is available to anyone suffering from any kind of chronic disease. Of the participants, 18 live with fibromyalgia, a disorder that often involves muscle and connective tissue pain, fatigue and sleep disturbance, while the others span 191 different illnesses, many of which are incurable.