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new article 10 Ways I Prevent Chronic Fatigue Syndrome From Stealing My Mental Health

G

George

Guest
Nice

January is the highest month for suicides, the last half is particularly high. There are a bunch of reasons for this, I forget them though.

This is a very nice piece and well timed to remind all of us to keep the faith and that it is o.k. to let go and just be sick.

4 paws up Jody.

It will make a nice section in your book (grins)
 

xlynx

Senior Member
Messages
163
Location
London, UK
Hey Jody,

Great article! Was lovely to read. I especially liked the one about walking from the bedroom to the kitchen taking your breath away, I can certainly identify with that at the moment. Its funny how reading someone else write that makes me feel more at peace when I am going through it :) (recovering from the kitchen trip at the moment)

Take care, Jerry
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
Jerry,

It's funny how that works, but I experience it too. It is reassuring to hear it from someone else. My son and I occasionally have the same symptoms going on, and ... you know, we wouldn't wish these symptoms on anyone but it has at times been comforting to know it's happening to both of us.

And, it's nice to know someone else REALLY understands the hell we go through.

Sometimes that hallway from bedroom to kitchen seems a hundred miles long ....:rolleyes:
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
January is the highest month for suicides, the last half is particularly high. There are a bunch of reasons for this, I forget them though.

This is a very nice piece and well timed to remind all of us to keep the faith and that it is o.k. to let go and just be sick.

4 paws up Jody.

It will make a nice section in your book (grins)

George,

My editor asked me for something on CFS and mental health, she not realizing of course what a hornet's nest THAT subject can be. Took me three days to figure out how I could approach this without (hopefully) sounding trite.

I will take this article and expand on it, and have a whole chapter on CFS and Mental Health. :D
 
G

George

Guest
Jody
you missed trite by a mile (snort) This is a really 'hopeful' piece. Yeah, I can see expanding each of the 10 to include a story. Weird I'm having a shortness of breath week too.???

I know joint pain gets worse the lower the barometric pressure, I wonder if it affects breathing as well.???
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
George,

I wouldn't be surprised.

Two summers ago, we had a lot of dramatic barometric shifts, sometimes a couple times a day. I was like a rag doll on a roller coaster. I was a good little barometric guage for awhile there.

All kinds of symptoms would flare up for me, everything from head fog to body stone to shortness of breath, an assortment of OI symptoms ...

The winter also seems to be a fertile time for this type of stuff too. I am more likely to be short of breath this time of year.
 
G

George

Guest
George,

I wouldn't be surprised.

Two summers ago, we had a lot of dramatic barometric shifts, sometimes a couple times a day. I was like a rag doll on a roller coaster. I was a good little barometric guage for awhile there.

All kinds of symptoms would flare up for me, everything from head fog to body stone to shortness of breath, an assortment of OI symptoms ...

The winter also seems to be a fertile time for this type of stuff too. I am more likely to be short of breath this time of year.

Well, I'll be jiggered the things you learn here. Yeah, I went out to pet my neighbors dog, cause when he sees me he lays down and goes belly up, so I go out to give him a rub and I'm breathing like I've just finished a marathon. The neighbor is looking at me funny, "you O.K.?" she asks. "Of course", I say. "I'm fine." What else can you say. I'm as good as I get. (grins)
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
Well, I'll be jiggered the things you learn here. Yeah, I went out to pet my neighbors dog, cause when he sees me he lays down and goes belly up, so I go out to give him a rub and I'm breathing like I've just finished a marathon. The neighbor is looking at me funny, "you O.K.?" she asks. "Of course", I say. "I'm fine." What else can you say. I'm as good as I get. (grins)

Alan and I sound like two old folks when we get up out of a chair or bend over. We're not what you could call youn :rolleyes:g -- I'm 54 and he's 57 -- but sometimes we sound like we're 80. :eek:
 

Frickly

Senior Member
Messages
1,049
Location
Texas
Jody, Your article was very moving and thanks for writing it. The one word that kept coming to my mind as I read it was "hope." I share your hope for the future. I did not know you were writing a book, I can't wait to read it!
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
Frickly,

I think hope has been the most important factor for me in recovering. My naturopath has been important, her remedies and supplements have made a big difference. But even she says that she thinks that my attitude of hope is the biggest factor in my healing thus far.

If I didn't have hope I would plummet and not get up again.

LOL. Well ... GEORGE says I am writing a book. :Retro tongue: We'll see if she turns out to be right. Time will tell .... :rolleyes:
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
Vicki, that is pretty sweet too.

Frickly, see that, Vicki agrees that you are a sweetheart.:Retro smile:
 

shiso

Senior Member
Messages
159
Great article, Jody, thank you.

This one hit home for me because I've been feeling especially sad these last few weeks and have been in "guarding" mode. Even though I know in my head that I have to remain hopeful, and my friends and family tell me all the time, and I have been going through trial and error on what helps and what doesn't, it helps in a different way to hear it from someone who I know has been through this particular experience.

Since your articles always come up in my Google alerts for CFS articles online, I'll bet you're helping lots and lots of other people out there with your "gets it just right and somehow manages to comfort at the same time" writing! Thanks again Jody.
 

Jody

Senior Member
Messages
4,636
Location
Canada
shiso,

This has been a particularly difficult time for you. If I remember right, you have found yourself fairly recently in the CFS tsunami and while being sick a long time also sucks:rolleyes: there is a feeling sometimes of at least knowing what we're dealing with when we've been in it a while. Your grief may be pretty fresh, your old life is not that long ago.

The ups and downs seem to be inevitable. I had a few years of mostly pessimistic defeat that wouldn't seem to go away, and that is a terrible way to live. Hope would be important even if it didn't help anything change. If all it does is keep the sense of utter futility at bay, it is doing something valuable.

But I think that grabbing onto the rope of hope for a better future changes more than a black mood. I don't know how or why, I just know that's been my experience. Once I began to dare to hope again -- to force myself to hope against my own will and impulses and ... beliefs -- verrrrry slowly things did begin to change ... just a little. And then a little. Don't mean to be Pollyanna-ish here. Hopefully you understand what I'm trying to say.:Retro smile:
 

meandthecat

Senior Member
Messages
206
Location
West country UK
Nice article Jody

Mental Hygiene is so important and yet it has been subverted by vested interest as a weapon used against us.

I have a son who is Bi-polar, I have watched my mother die of early- onset Alzheimers and my daughter struggle through Mono. I have seen facets each of these conditions in myself and why wouldn't I; they are in the range of human experience. They don't define me, I am more than this and when people seek to 'explain' my behaviour with psychobabble I feel a righteous anger burn it away. I might not say much but I am standing tall and strong.

The tide is turning; if there is any justice it should become a Tsunami hurtling toward those who have caused some much pain for so long.