Positive Attitude: The glue that holds your Mind Body and Spirit

Having a positive attitude is easier said than done, but having one while living with a chronic disease like multiple sclerosis (MS) can be a real challenge.

If you are up for a challenge, keep reading.

Learning to develop the right attitude to command your mind, body and spirit is 100% better than having a chronic illness like multiple sclerosis (MS) run your life.

Adopting a positive attitude is like opening a door to a new way of thinking and living. Having it, can greatly help you deal – cope - with the sudden turns that multiple sclerosis (MS) forces on you.

I am going to let you in a little secret: It wasn’t always like that for me.

You remember when you first heard the diagnosis? It didn’t fully hit you then but, after a while, after allowing the news to sink in, to simmer for a while, you, like me, started falling through the cracks with all the dreams and plans we had carefully layout in front of our lives.

Let’s be real. MS sucks but having MS doesn’t have to be worse than it already is. When you have a chronic illness, like MS, it can be very difficult to have and keep a positive attitude. In order to cope with life with a chronic illness, you need to develop a healthy emotional mindset.

There are five phases that anyone facing a chronic illness must go through:

1. DENIAL AND FEAR

At the beginning you cannot believe what the doctor just told you. You are reluctant to believe you have a chronic illness and you start a frantic search for answers. In today’s world, we search the internet to find out more about our particular illness.

You have to be really careful not believing everything you read on the internet.

When the neurologist told my wife and me that it could be MS, the first thing we did when we got home was to look up on the internet what in the world was MS. One page said something about MS causing infertility. This of course is not true but we didn’t know that then and it was an emotional scare for both of us being a young couple in our marriage.

2. ANGER

You get very angry at life for what is happening. You get angry with everyone, family and friends, because they don’t understand what you are going through.

Getting angry is normal under these circumstances. Nobody can blame you and don’t blame yourself. Understand that it’s part of the process you are going through and put your mind to work on getting pass it.

3. BARGIN

You will start negotiating, bargain, with God to make this illness disappear in exchange for all sort of promises. You might feel you are being punished for something you did before in your life.

4. DEPRESSION

This is something that everyone new to having a chronic illness will go through. A feeling of hopelessness about the situation grows inside and you start wondering how you are going to spend the rest of your life this way.

Most people – you too - managed to get beyond this point without having suicidal thoughts but since you or whoever is going through this problem is not going to want to talk about it, your family, especially your immediate family, should alert your doctor if they suspect that depression is worsening. Your doctor can prescribed an anti-depressant to help during this period..

5. ACCEPTANCE
This is the light at the end of a very dark and frightful tunnel. You realize that life is what it is. You finally move into the state that allows you to realize that you have to live with the illness and start looking for ways to improve your life.

It is not unusual to start feeling the urge to actively start reaching out to other patients or start a support group or lobby for more government funding for the illness.

Your goal – and you will reach it – is to know, truly know, that YOU have MS but MS doesn’t have YOU. Building a strong positive attitude towards your life reality is the foundation you are going to stand on.

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