Your attitude

Discussion in 'Your Living Room' started by rondrums, Feb 6, 2011.

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  1. rondrums

    rondrums Bilateral

    Thanks, June. You're just like me: The simple things are the best.

    I'm not into sugar, but alcohol is a different matter. I love to guzzle beer. A couple of doctors have told me that alcohol is a depressant. I understand that. But it's one indulgence that I would have a hard time giving up. It helps my mood and relieves stress. It also doesn't have any great effect on my dizziness (unless I really overdo it, which I never do).

    You know, I used to do yoga many years ago, and I couldn't believe how much it elevated my mood and my attitude. Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to get back into it.
     
  2. hollymm

    hollymm Me, 'in' a tree.

    Being down does suck. You've gotten some really good advice from good people here. It looks like that alone might've helped. I mean knowing you're not alone. If you just change thing - just one, it might make all the difference. So, what is that one thing you're going to change? Oh, and don't say give up beer cuz that's to big a 'thing'. :D
     
  3. njspingirl

    njspingirl unilateral menieres..had vns and gent injections

    I have been very down lately. My kitchen is under renovation going on 2 weeks now. I am pretty much stuck in the house with the contractor every single day. I was getting out more before it all started.
    I do not see my sisters much anymore nor my mother. Mom lives far away.
    Hubby is changing jobs and that is stressful because I take care of all the financials. I do know that from past experience, the gym has helped ALOT. However, due to the weather and the dizziness, neck and shoulder spasms that have popped up AGAIN,, I am in a rut. I do not have a positive attitude right now. I am always searching for something to make me feel good, but cant seem to find it.
    I would love to hit the gym again, but afraid I will fail. Antidepressants are not an option for me, I had bad side affects from about a dozen of them. Im too afraid to try them again.
    The lonliness has to be the worst for me. Even though I am married..I am still alone, even when he is home. He just wants to unwind. I am at a loss.
     
  4. June-

    June- New Member

    I relate to the contractor situation.

    About the gym, think of goals at which you cannot fail. Process goals. Like you will go to the gym every day that weather and health permits. That's going to be a significant number of days more than if you just give up. At the gym, just commit to what you feel up to on that day. Do not try to compete with the young and the fit. I find more often than not I do more than I thought I could or wanted to. The hardest part for me is getting dressed in my gym clothes and getting out the door.
     
  5. Brownrecluse

    Brownrecluse New Member

    Good thoughts all. Had my worst day in years today. Normally, I am content, as I just take the progressive increase in symptoms in stride. For whatever reason, got a hurricane 5 level attack in my head today, could barely walk, fell repeatedly, was totally disoriented and nauseous, had tears streaming for hours which never happens to me, felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat and that a black hole was sucking me into the ground.

    My wife was there to keep my spirits up. And I did a double dose of valiium-20mg--to no effect. Finally, and reluctantly, I went to my drug of last resort. Alcohol. Had a bottle of a nice Spanish red, and the tears stopped. Finishing the second bottle now, and my mind is clearer, the vertigo is way reduced, and I can face life again. Not an alcoholic, always hated the taste of it. But my doctor, an eminent researcher in Meniere's, told me years ago that some people find alcohol helpful, others harmful. I am clearly in the former category. My problem is that my parents were both alcoholics, and I did not drink for decades because of that. So it is ironic that it is the main thing that helps me now, though of course, every time I am forced to use it, I feel a total failure, as I do not respect people who drink.

    Bottom line: you have to fight this ungodly illness with whatever you need to use. I stay alive for my wife. Absent her, I would have eaten a bullet years ago, because my MM is so severe I cannot leave my house except for medical appointments, and hate doing even that. I have created a pseudo-life with close captioned TV (muted, as I am hideously sound sensitive), computer message boards of various kinds, and computer games I can play without sound and that do not make me dizzy. It is no life compared to what I had before Meniere's, but I make of it the best I can. I tried the various antidepressants at times over the years, and with others here, it just made things worse.

    I suppose I keep living not just because of my wife and daughters, but because before MM, I had a great life. I was successful, a known and respected community leader in a very large city, a physically active and very fit person for my age, and a major figure in my law firm. I think of how much I had compared to so many billions of people in the world, and what a great run it was, and it stops any self-pity I might be otherwise inclined to indulge. That whole glass half-full thing works, if you embrace it. And for Meniere's sufferers, it can be an incredible life line.

    Be strong, my compatriots. To paraphrase a phony Harvard motto, Non Illegitimi Carborundi, meaning don't let the ba$tards grind you down. Or in this case, our own very particular ba$tard. Peace and out.
     
  6. amberini

    amberini New Member

    I wish I could reach out to everyone who has posted here. I know the darkness too well myself.

    Days blend into each other, seasons change without notice. Before you know it, years have gone by without any memories. I have blank years, the stolen years.

    But now I am better and those dark days have been gone a good long while. I can see clearly now.

    For all who suffer this daily torture, I know how desperate it feels. I know what it's like to live only for the special people in our life. I know what it's like to sacrifice careers, relationships, fun, intellect.
    And we may never return to those levels again. The life we knew is gone.

    But there is a chance you can get to a place of peace and from there rebuild your life.

    I only know that here, we are all joined by our disease and we understand the terrible swings and disappointments from lack of cures or successful treatments. No matter where you are, you must know that here you will find those who know, who care, who have walked the path before you and those who are walking right beside you in case you just need a hand.
     
  7. June-

    June- New Member

    I thought of two more things that have helped me over the years.

    One is during a time when it seems nothing good is happening and nothing good will, do something for yourself. Study something you have always wanted to know about, take a class, lose 10 pounds, whiten your teeth, do something that will be there paying dividends when you feel better later. Because you will feel better later and you will feel like this time wasn't entirely lost because you will have a new skill, an attribute you like when you come out the other side of the tunnel.

    The other thing is to keep a feel good file. This is a file into which you put copies of nice things people have said about you at work or in your personal life, letters that warm your heart, inspirational stories you have read, cartoons that bring a belly laugh from you, anything that makes you feel good. When you are having a bad day, take out that file and rummage through it.
     
  8. hollymm

    hollymm Me, 'in' a tree.

    I rebuild my life every single day. Thank God it's not hour to hour any more... "ok, let's start again" is almost my motto
     

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