Thursday, January 19, 2012

Fibromyalgia Patients Don't Want To Get Better

Anyone ever heard those words? I have. From medical doctors to multi-level marketing juice purveyors and everyone in between. It's stupid, we know. But why do they think this? What have we done to create this reputation? And after coming out of a horrible flare and peaking my head shyly around the corner of "normal" life I think I figured it out. We have to fight so bloody hard for so bloody long to get anyone to believe us. We get sympathy for the cold or flu but not a disabling illness there is no cure for. We try to remain positive and not complain. But our consideration painfully backfires in our faces. Since they can't see the illness, and you are not complaining about it, they forget. Assume the pre-Fibro you still exists in the same body and are usually not terribly pleasant if you refuse to meet their expectations or worse for you, fall down in the giant heap of a flare trying to do so. So sometimes we may get a little defensive. 

When I was on disability everyone kept asking me when I was going to get better. It would send me into catastrophic meltdowns. It's not like having a baby or wearing a cast for a broken bone, for crying out loud! There is no "due" date on chronic illness. But because of that specific function, that there is no end, for some inconceivable reason it is deemed optional. So that is why, I believe, when somebody discovers their personal cure they may shout it from the rooftops and insist everyone else in the world can get better too, if they just did _______. And how certain ignorant individuals assume they know the cause, such as lazy depression or nutritional inadequacies, and therefore self-determine the patient is not doing what they think the patient should to get better. Fibromyalgia is a really long journey to a seemingly unreachable destination. The road is as highly individual as the cause of Fibro itself. Each person finds their way based on individual circumstances. In my experience reaching for balance, homeostasis, is the one way I stay ahead of Fibro. One step closer to that destination, the place we all wish we could get to more than anywhere else in the world right now. Life Fibro free.

Thanks for joining,
Leah

5 comments:

  1. you've hit the nail on the head. all I can add is BIG *gentle hugs*

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  2. You have a knack for saying just how I feel.

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  3. This is SO true. Thanks for posting!

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  4. I feel so much better after reading this blog. It's nice to know that there are others fighting this illness. The negative social messages we receive on a daily bases just adds to this unbearable burden.

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  5. Hee! You're an excellent writer and I appreciate your candor. I am putting your site on my list of Favorite Blogs. I so empathize with you - and thanks for the insights into my life!

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