Attitude and MS

I have really been through the mill with MS and lived through some very dark times. Having come through them and 'survived' I now look back and see MS as my greatest teacher and, though difficult, I know that I am turning MS from my worst nightmare into my greatest blessing. So what has helped me to change my attitude and turn my life around? Well, initially, it was the contact and support I received through the internet that gave me the strength to face MS head-on and to stop running away (there was no place left to hide anyway). Suddenly I was no longer alone. I woke up in the morning and even if I felt depressed and awful, I knew I would get up and get on with my life, because there were others all over the world doing just that!

I felt life had dealt me a pretty tough card with MS but I began to realised it was entirely up to me how to play it!

I could choose to play the victim, or I could choose to search for ways of managing my illness and taking control. That would not be easy. That would mean acceptance of MS and changes in my attitude and lifestyle.

I have found that the Right Attitude is crucial, that and the willingness to work with what you can do and can achieve and not with what you can’t or what you have lost. Self-pity has its place but at the end of the day it doesn’t attract the great things or people into your life that you need does it! It is also important to be willing to change and move forward with your life. If you have a disability you can often get around the problem, there are ways around most things once we come to terms with them. Remember, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. If you don’t like your life and what you are getting, then change it, change your lifestyle, your diet, try different supplements, work out an exercise plan etc. Always focus on what you can do, set yourself goals, plan what you want in your life and then go for it!

That is what people all over the world are doing, and they are finding ways of stabilising MS and in many cases even recovering. While the long-term aim of MS Research is to ‘drain the crocodile pool’, we don’t really have time to wait around for this. We live with MS now so our focus surely should be on finding ways of ‘warding off those nasty MS-crocodiles’ on a daily basis! Each individual’s experience will be different but there are many different drugs and self-help therapies to be explored. OK, so it may not all be tried and tested, but I think we are intelligent enough to work out what is of real benefit, and what is simply a scam or a rip-off.

That is why I am willing to be a bit controversial. At the end of the day, if it helps one, it may well benefit others so it’s important to have access to such information. So whatever you experience or come across, let’s hear about it OK! Others may think you are mad to dare to suggest you can take control of MS.

Remember Galileo, in 1636 he was excommunicated and imprisoned for his belief that the earth revolves around the sun when everyone 'knew' of course that the sun revolved around the earth! Yet who was proven right in the end? We are the ones living with MS right here right now so, at the end of the day, who cares how others label us!

Sylvie

MS is a project for me. It's a project that I will end up getting an A in. If I was in school, I'd get an A in MS. I'll get an A in MS right now in my life, and I will stay on top of it every single day to guarantee that I do that. And that's what's going to make my life better. Am I beating this disease? I don't know. Do I care if I'm beating it? I really don't. Because I feel so much better today than I did yesterday. And I'm going to feel so much better tomorrow. But I'm going to worry about it. I'm going to live it out as long as I can at the maximum that I can, until one day something happens that I can't. And then, I'll live it out at that point at that maximum level.

That's what we have to get people to start thinking. Change their way of thinking. It's not like I'm waiting for MS to catch up with me. Hell with that. I'm going to wait 'til I can beat MS. That's what I'm doing. You just have to decide that you're no longer willing to sit down and let MS ravage you. You want to ravage it. I have a battle with the disease every day. It's good for me. I get up, it's like, "Yo! Come on, throw it down! What's the best you have?" Because no matter what best that it has, I will beat it, guaranteed.

Montel Williams  - The Montel Williams MS Foundation

'The essence of flexibility is the willingness to let go, embrace change and move on. Try to take things are they come, and when presented with choices, don't always opt for the familiar.

Try something new - a new colour to wear, a new route somewhere, a new kind of music to listen to.

Practising flexibility creates flexibility in the nervous system by challenging your brain cells make new associations'.

© Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC)