Does being primed for problems ...
...make you more susceptible to them?
I've had MS for a long time (26y) and have only recently (last 36-24 months) engaged with the MS community.
If I didn't know better I might wonder if all the extra awareness and the amount that I think about it now exacerbate my symptoms.
I merrily ignored my MS and could go days without even a smidgen of thought about it.
Now, in order not to look pissed I have a cane for my day to day stuff, obsess if I am getting enough of the right type of exercise, always concerned that fatigue will step in and chop me down in the middle of an article/work assignment and consume info about drugs and research in a way I never did before.
Rather pleasingly, I had to fly to Vancouver (from London) last Wednesday at extremely short (6h) notice and returned yesterday, with a horrendous connection and delay through Phoenix. I was quite concerned that I would fold with fatigue either way. So far, not a bit of it.
I am very happy but a bit surprised. Buy now, pay later?
Must. Stop. Reading. Too. Much. about MS...
@dominics I think it's just normal progression. Reading about it doesn't make things happen. Perhaps they have happened already and you just haven't noticed? I've had the beast for about the same time as you and everything started to go seriously downbank for me about 2 years ago but I am 63, so perhaps age is a factor, I don't know, but as you are obviously younger than me (isn't almost everybody) I'm very grateful for the 20 odd yeas I was on my feet, bringing up offspring, playing on the floor with grandchild, even she is now 14, and now I can't physically do things and need some help but don't all grandmas? As long as you keep going, at whatever level you can, you will be o.k. And if you're not in the future, you can always write about it👏🤞🥊😜
Ha! Common-sense, as ever. I am 50 and am indeed thankful. I also don't subscribe to the victim-mentality that some people seem to have. It seems to hold them back and is a form of mental self-harm, as if there isn't enough on their plate already. Being primed to take offence or see discrimination the entire time strikes me as quite tiring in and of itself. I can eat, heat the house, write. In terms of progression, I see the challenge as learning to take pleasure from different things. I can't wish it away so had better embrace it in order to stay sane. I am wondering if thinking about something more seems to exacerbate the effects or perhaps it just throws them into sharper focus. What are your thoughts?