I read a lot on here about how people are feeling and I feel the need to ramble.
Are Chronies more likely to get depressed??? The short answer is yes, of course BUT before you convince yourself you are going mad understand this.... Situational depression is different that other depressions in that if we remove the situation the depression goes away! What does that mean for us Chronies? It means that we get depressed because we run out of resilience, why? Because we have to spend 10 trips a day sitting on the loo, have constant pain, nausea, fear accidents and "sharts", take 11 tablets a day, waste a heap of cash on Dr's visits that don't change a bloody thing, oh did I mention the bloody, mucousy diarrhoea, and constant blood tests? It seems really sad that having a colonoscopy now is about as scary as having a blood test; I guess that what happens when you gain so much experience.
Then there's the side effects of 30 years of Prednisolone, like an inability to sleep, constant headaches,iritis, crush fractures in your spine and an immune system that's fragged, which is handy when you work in a hospital...
But all of us know that the one thing that pisses us off is that it isn't a socially accepted disease that we can talk about, so instead we say we're okay when we really aren't. Many of us would happily swap for something the public can see, for ****'s sake you get more attention for a sprained ankle and a set of crutches. No we don't want sympathy, just a little understanding when we're having an off day.
Now if someone could take away the symptoms for me I shall rebuild my resilience in no time and the depression and anxiety would be history. In the meantime we shall add a new drug to the mix and I remind myself that I would not swap you for a cancer diagnosis or a stroke or any number of the other medical choices.
May you always have a better day than yesterday.
Thank you for listening to me ramble. Now i need a rum!
Are Chronies more likely to get depressed??? The short answer is yes, of course BUT before you convince yourself you are going mad understand this.... Situational depression is different that other depressions in that if we remove the situation the depression goes away! What does that mean for us Chronies? It means that we get depressed because we run out of resilience, why? Because we have to spend 10 trips a day sitting on the loo, have constant pain, nausea, fear accidents and "sharts", take 11 tablets a day, waste a heap of cash on Dr's visits that don't change a bloody thing, oh did I mention the bloody, mucousy diarrhoea, and constant blood tests? It seems really sad that having a colonoscopy now is about as scary as having a blood test; I guess that what happens when you gain so much experience.
Then there's the side effects of 30 years of Prednisolone, like an inability to sleep, constant headaches,iritis, crush fractures in your spine and an immune system that's fragged, which is handy when you work in a hospital...
But all of us know that the one thing that pisses us off is that it isn't a socially accepted disease that we can talk about, so instead we say we're okay when we really aren't. Many of us would happily swap for something the public can see, for ****'s sake you get more attention for a sprained ankle and a set of crutches. No we don't want sympathy, just a little understanding when we're having an off day.
Now if someone could take away the symptoms for me I shall rebuild my resilience in no time and the depression and anxiety would be history. In the meantime we shall add a new drug to the mix and I remind myself that I would not swap you for a cancer diagnosis or a stroke or any number of the other medical choices.
May you always have a better day than yesterday.
Thank you for listening to me ramble. Now i need a rum!
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