GET OVER IT! Accept your disease...

What I'm writing here is all opinion so if you don't want to read opinion, don't read. This is a long post.

I'm not just talking about Addison's Disease, endocrine disease or any particular disease. If you don't accept your disease, you will live a half life.

Stories of a couple of people have struck me this week, these are people who have diseases and don't/won't take their medicines to make them well or at least make them live decently. They don't want their bodies to become "dependent" on the medication. Their world revolves around pain, sickness, medical procedures, hospitals and general misery. This is a lack of acceptance of disease.

It's incredibly selfish to deny you have a disease whey you actually have one and continue to mistreat your body. You may not care about yourself or your health but it's downright crappy to punish your kids, spouse, parents and friends by slowly commiting suicide in front of them. Most likely your lack of acceptance is because your brain chemistry is so screwed up from being sick for so long and you're depressed. Try taking the medicines that you are supposed to take and see if it makes a difference in how you feel.

If you don't accept your disease, your life is going to suck. Once you do accept your disease, your life inevitably will get better.

I am not saying a person has to accept the limitations of a disease. Often times, limitations of a disease are preconceived or totally false notion that an uneducated doctor cooks up to keep us from getting our hopes up or perhaps the doctor doesn't know any better. Once you accept your disease, your life is bound to get much better.

You accept your disease and here's what you can do from there:

• Ask for help from knowledgable doctors, spouses, friends. If you don't accept that there's a problem, you won't ask for help.
• Research your disease because a doctor can't and won't know everything.
• Take the best medications for you at the correct times (many times a doctor will prescribe a medication that works but there's on that is a healthier option, hydrocortisone vs. prednisone. How many Addisonian's have been told, "Take 10 mg when you wake up and 10 mg before you go to bed."? ALL WRONG information from a misinformed doctor) See previous suggestion. DO YOUR RESEARCH
• Find others who are well and live well with their disease.
• Eat right for your disease. Avoid certain foods if necessary. I wouldn't consider diet sodas a food but they should always be avoided at all costs. I think diet soda is poison.
• Take the right supplements for your disease.

Once you get the basics of foods and medications straightened out, most likely you will feel so much better than you did before you were diagnosed. Feeling better will give you the energy and positive mental outlook to be able to do more. By more I mean: being able to play with your kids, walking to your mail box, clean the garage. I don't necessarily mean some huge athletic goal.
I wonder, do the rest of you who feel well look at your pills with wonder and think, "Holy crap, this little pill has made a huge difference in my life. I'm lucky!"? I do. Before I was diagnosed, my life sucked. I was unable to do much of anything. I would fall asleep while reading to my son, I couldn't walk up and down stairs, I was constantly sick and throwing up. Now, none of those thing happen unless I do them to myself. Any of you who aren't dead (or bored to tears and have read this far!) should try being appreciative of the little white pills we take!

Once again I digress and go off on goal setting...

Set a goal of doing something, SOMETHING! If you have no direction, you won't go anywhere.

You may or may not be able to reach your goal but ultimately it's not the goal that's important, it's the journey to the goal. For example, I'm 5'2" tall and nearly 40. If I got the bizarre notion in my head that I wanted to be a pro basketball player (I could get that idea in my head!), I'd have a hell of a time trying to become one. Learning the rules of bball, the names of the teams, positions, working out with a basketball specific workout, playing on a league, etc..
Set a goal of acceptance.
Set a goal of taking the right medications at the right times.
Set a goal of eating well.
Set a goal of networking with others who have the disease you do.
Set bigger life goals and create the steps needed to reach them.

"To motivate yourself every day, the most important thing is to set a goal. If you have a goal, you know what you must do because you have a plan. And if you don't reach that goal, try and try again." -Haile Gebrselassie, world record holder in the marathon (2:04:26)