With Having Fibromyalgia Have You Found It Harder To..

I actually have enjoyed watching some health shows more lately - I like Code Blue, Trama: Life in the ER, Mystery Diagnosis, things like that. Why? Well, in part because they do more than talk about the illness. I like Trama probably best because they go to a hospital, they talk to the interns/doctors/nurses and we get to know something about them. We get to meet anf follow some patients from that night or several nights. We see a few they lose but mostly they win. I've seen people in accidents with overwhelming injuries that survive. I guess the other kind of show they wouldn't make if they didn't have a happy ending so I don't watch them as much, I want real endings, probably why I don't watch much network anymore.

I understand exactly what you are saying. I had someone start a chat with me on Facebook today... a friend from high school (I'm 46 now so I haven't seen her in a looooong time). We got to talking about my illness and she asked me if I had checked a certain person about inner healing. I really didn't want to hear that crap. Like you said, fibro is many illnesses all rolled up into one nasty package. I have had it for 12 years and I spent the first 5 years lying on the couch feeling sorry for myself. Then I decided to be proactive. I had counselling to help me accept the illness for what it was. I learned to find the blessings it gave me (I was able to stay home and raise my children instead of working, which I couldn't do; my husband had to stop his partying ways and step up to the plate, etc.). I learned to know my limitations, pace myself, exercise, found the medication and supplement regimen that works best for me. As my doctor said, I'm doing all I can do. I have to admit I have a very negative attitude and I have done my best to try and change that. But I don't believe that is going to make my illness go away. At a time when I felt great, I tried to ease off my anti-depressants. I immediately started to feel tired and down. Got back on the meds full time and I felt better. So that translates to me a definitive chemical imbalance. I was feeling good (positive attitude) and went off the meds but it had negative affects. I don't believe my attitude had anything to do with that. At another time my insurance company said I had to take generic anti-depressants. I was on it for a month, a very long, miserable month. I had no idea it was the change in medication that made me feel so bad so you can't say that it was my own thinking that made me turn that way. I didn't figure it out until someone on a message board made an offhand comment about generic medication. That's when it hit me. I got the doctor to prescribe no substitutions and within a couple of days I was feeling much better. I have gone the "I can do this" route. Vacuuming the house, tubing, running a three-legged race.... I paid the price dearly. How can I bring on my pain with my mind? The activities I participated in caused my pain. There is no mistaking that. I think it is great for those people who have become cured of their illnesses no matter how they did it. I had one doctor tell me to get rid of the stressors in my life. How the heck am I supposed to do that? I am a wife and mother with responsibilities. Sometimes I'm running in three different directions at once. How am I supposed to relieve my stressors? How am I supposed to pretend they don't exist? I manage, I cope, I deal, I love my kids and I love doing what I do for them. Yes, it can be stressful at times. Can I make my brain say that it isn't stressful? The only thing I have said in response to all this is, "Yeah, I'm a mother. That's my job." That says I have accepted it all. Isn't that supposed to be positive? That doesn't make the stress go away. Sorry I'm carrying on so much but I feel the way you do. Don't tell me that if I only think positively about myself I will be healed. I'll never be Joyce Meyer but I sure love to listen to her, take notes and try to follow her teachings. I believe in God. I believe that if you do good things, God will bless you in kind. When? I don't know. Only God knows. I do not believe that if I stop believing I am sick I won't be sick anymore. The most I can do is not to dwell on it, complain about it, etc. I'll step off my soap box now.

I have fibro too, and I can' work anymore but my god it is not the fault of people that have done marvelous things with disabilities, attitude makes a lot of difference, your attitude is your are sick and you are but remember it is not there fault, they are not calling you a failure, they are just showing people the remarkable things they have done. When you change your own attitude you will feel better about yourself and that is the important thing, not what other people can or cannot do.

I have fibromyalgia and MS among other odds and ends and am on disability. And it took them a long time time to diagnose the MS as it does not present in the textbook manner, so I don't look like I have MS and since fibromyalgia also is a hidden disease most people don't quite understand why I am on disability. But I don't mind watching shows about people who are have somehow managed a "miraculous cure". This actually seems to be rather encouraging, perhaps, if I do all the things the doctors tell me to maybe I can achieve at least a little remission, if not a cure. But most of the time I just deal with life as it comes and enjoy what I can and that included movies and television.

Boy can I relate. I have Fibro and CFS as well as asthma, COPD, diabetes, and a whole slew of other health problems. To be honest I just hate watching those type of shows or even hearing from people that tell me to just "learn to live with it." Yea, right. As if I haven't "learned to live with it" enough as it is. Otherwise I wouldn't still be here suffering every single frickin day now would I?? LOL People who can go on and have "fullfilling" lives and "great accomplishments" despite their health problems. I just want to smile with my teeth gritted and say HOW NICE! I got up today, does that count for anything? I'm still breathing today, does that count? Like you I think its wonderful that SOME people are able to move beyond their health issues. But what I really wish is that there was a hell of a lot more understanding for those of us unable to climb the nearest mountain on our elbows or something. I remember one day a year ago when I'd had yet another surgery and I was so weak I just sat here by the window and cried with the pain. As I sat here a couple went riding leisurely by on their bikes in the sunshine. If they only know how much I wanted to be out there doing the same thing! But I can't. And I'm sorry folks - but no amount of "positive thinking" I try are going to get more oxygen into my lungs or take the never ending pain away either.