I recently read an article on line which in a nutshell said, we need to "choose" to be positive about our chronic illness / pain. How does one do that, exactly?
Something like: "Yipee! I'm in more pain today than I was yesterday!"
Or perhaps: "I'm so glad to be in so much pain!!"
? Ummm... No.
It was as if by "choosing" (if only it was a choice!) to be positive about our chronic illness, that will somehow magically make the chronic illness disappear. The article further stated, we should replace any negative thoughts that come into our heads with positive ones and when we do this enough times, the positive ones become easier and the negative ones less frequent.
I wish it was that easy!
Just think positive and eventually all will be A.O.K. Unfortunately, it's not that easy and by employing those lies, the only ones we're fooling or lying to is ourselves. Except, we cannot lie to ourselves.
In addition to this, we may fool everyone else around us, but what good does this do? If we say "I am fine" when we're in unbearable pain, who have we fooled? It doesn't make the pain go away or even make it less painful. No, it's still there, as bad as ever, except now everyone around us believes (because we told them), we are fine and we must now continue to live up to "being fine". Not only are we not being honest, we're helping others believe we're ok when we are not. That further erodes our chance of gaining their understanding.
If the pain is real, it is real and there is nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade.
Contrast that article with another meme I saw, which read:
"Positivity is not a cure for chronic illness.
Reality and Honesty about symptoms is not negativity"
I absolutely LOVE this one!!!
By being honest about our illness, our symptoms and our struggles, we're not being negative.....we're just being, well, honest and realistic.
We wouldn't say we're warm when we're cold or that we're full when we're actually starving. That would accomplish nothing and we'd still be cold and hungry. Saying we're unwell or in pain etc., is no more negative than saying we are cold or hungry.
Being honest and realistic so we can have Balance, despite the Chaos
Something like: "Yipee! I'm in more pain today than I was yesterday!"
Or perhaps: "I'm so glad to be in so much pain!!"
? Ummm... No.
It was as if by "choosing" (if only it was a choice!) to be positive about our chronic illness, that will somehow magically make the chronic illness disappear. The article further stated, we should replace any negative thoughts that come into our heads with positive ones and when we do this enough times, the positive ones become easier and the negative ones less frequent.
I wish it was that easy!
Just think positive and eventually all will be A.O.K. Unfortunately, it's not that easy and by employing those lies, the only ones we're fooling or lying to is ourselves. Except, we cannot lie to ourselves.
In addition to this, we may fool everyone else around us, but what good does this do? If we say "I am fine" when we're in unbearable pain, who have we fooled? It doesn't make the pain go away or even make it less painful. No, it's still there, as bad as ever, except now everyone around us believes (because we told them), we are fine and we must now continue to live up to "being fine". Not only are we not being honest, we're helping others believe we're ok when we are not. That further erodes our chance of gaining their understanding.
If the pain is real, it is real and there is nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade.
Contrast that article with another meme I saw, which read:
"Positivity is not a cure for chronic illness.
Reality and Honesty about symptoms is not negativity"
I absolutely LOVE this one!!!
By being honest about our illness, our symptoms and our struggles, we're not being negative.....we're just being, well, honest and realistic.
We wouldn't say we're warm when we're cold or that we're full when we're actually starving. That would accomplish nothing and we'd still be cold and hungry. Saying we're unwell or in pain etc., is no more negative than saying we are cold or hungry.
Being honest and realistic so we can have Balance, despite the Chaos
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