Monday, February 25, 2008

How to Battle the Darkness


Some Days It's Hard to Be Positive!
I think I was born a pessimist. My mother used to say I was the best natured of her four kids - UNTIL I started getting chronic canker sores when I was about eight. That was just the first of several auto-immune illnesses I've been living with for over fifty years.
The gloomy days, as of late, are making me especially ornery. Somedays it is necessary to vent! This happens to be one of them.

You know it is a bad day when you open your morning paper and the main headline screams, "ECONOMIC FORECAST DARKENS." Our economic forecast was already dark - how can it get any worse? After perusing the other bad news, you look outside to see yet another cloudy, bleak day. And then you remember Ralph NADER announced he's going to run for president -- again.
I haven't felt like blogging for almost a week, because I don't want my writing to become predictably cynical. I really am making a concerted effort to be more optimistic in my life.

I'm married to an optimist (thank heavens). He tends to balance my dark side. He calls me pessimistic, but I think I'm a realist. I like to call it as I see it - the glass IS half empty, darn it all. I'm continually waiting for the other shoe to drop!
The Relief Society lesson yesterday was on anger and anger management. It made me angry. The Oscars made me angry because the nominated movies were so violent and bloody. I had to switch to PBS to watch part three of "Pride and Prejudice." Thank you, Jane Austen. Everything always works out in the end! I want to live in her world!

In the future, I will have to find ways to cope with gloomy weather, such as:
OR

New research from Northwestern University says chronic pain harms the brain! I now know what is ailing me (besides pain). Many patients with chronic pain have common cognitive and behavioral conditions, too. This is the first study to show that pain can cause conditions such as depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and decision-making difficulties, which effect the quality of life! The pain actually SHUTS DOWN centers in the brain that control these things.
YES. Thank you, Dr. Dante Chialvo! I thought I was going crazy. Now I know that my chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis pain IS changing my brain and brain chemistry, making it hard for me to concentrate - and impossible to work. It's all in my HEAD takes on a whole different meaning.

Maybe there's no help (or hope) for my condition -- But at least there's a logical, biological reason.

2 comments:

MissKris said...

I'm by nature pretty much an optimist...it's my husband who has a tendency to see the negative first...but today when he awoke me at 4 am and said, "There aren't any lunch snacks!" like it was the end of the world, then added, "Oh, and the dog pooped on the carpet last nite," well...I just felt like rolling over and pulling the pillow back over my head, ha! Days like this, I don't bother blogging. I've spent the last hour just playing Rainbow Web, listening to Emmylou Harris' "Stumble into Grace" cd, and chillin'. I don't like to contaminate the world with my blah-ness, haha! But, Sheri...tomorrow's another day. This, too, shall pass. Here's a (((((HUG)))))

Travelin'Oma said...

I hope the sun comes out soon.