The importance of positivity. Be good to yourself

This might sound crazy but this is helping me.
This is a difficult thing to deal with, the situation we’re in.

I’ve felt generally good the past few days. I feel like I’ve been mentally doing well and that’s helped me deal with the physical - maybe even helped some things improve, maybe not. But I felt generally good, that’s the main thing.

I read a lot of negative things today and immediately started to feel worse. As soon as I realised, I had to force myself into activity, both physical and mental. You have to fight this.

Your fight could be to exercise, to have a conversation, to not think about the negatives of your situation, to eat healthy food (I am sick of healthy food!), to make a plan to do something you like. Anything that you know will benefit you in some way, no matter how minor.

I had to say to myself “I’m not going to think about that” and took myself mentally away from what was troubling me. I feel better now than I did an hour ago. I am confident that I would have continued to feel bad had I not corrected myself.

I know some people here have a worse situation than me (equally some will have it better) and I’m sorry if this seems unrealistic. But, being positive will help you, far more than being negative.

If you disagree, please keep it to yourself. I need to be positive and I need other people to be positive too.

Remember: do everything you can to cope with your symptoms, focusing on the negative will not make your day better. You may not be able to control your situation but you can control your attitude to it.

Let’s do this. You are stronger than you think.

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Words of encouragement are always helpful! Thank you from someone who is fighting to support another going through these side effects! Please stay positive and continue to support those that you can!

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I agree - I try and do this, but I have horrible visual issues, which constantly remind me of my state. Everyday has become a struggle of distraction. It’s really sad.

I’m sorry to hear that @Mcbbould but thanks for posting. As patronising as it may sound, perhaps you could try to relax with activities that are less visual, audiobooks and podcasts, perhaps. Some I’ve listened to have been excellent, I’m sure you could find some you would enjoy.

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Thanks @Greek. I do have activities that don’t upset my visuals, even watching tv is okay. It’s really the second I step outside or looking in a mirror that really crushes me (totally distorted). I don’t have anexity or any sexual issues either, so I try and stay positive and hope this will pass. I always compare myself to pre-fin, which isn’t healthy, but I can’t help it. My life was amazing, and the things I loved doing most have been stripped away from me. I was a huge outdoor junky and I love to drink IPAs. All things I can longer do. I never enjoyed video games/tv or being inside, but sadly this is what my life has been reduced to for now. I’ve started doing occipital lobe stimulation games and I eat well/exercise, so at this point it is a waiting game for me. I still enjoy sex which is helping me through this, but everyday feels like it’s own battle to remain calm and positive. Anyways sorry for venting and hijacking your thread. Appreciate your advice on positivity. I’m 3.5 months in btw but it feels like an eternity.

No need to apologise, I’m really glad you posted.

That’s good that you’re able to find alternate things to do. I know it’s a symptom, not the cause but could an optician help you? Some people have distorted vision (astigmatism) which is corrected with glasses. I don’t know what your distortion is like or what the mechanism is but is it possible that if your current vision distorts the image by a value of 5, that they could give you some glasses that distort it by a value of -5, giving you zero as the two come together?