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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
 Posted - 08/01/2011 : 02:55:12
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Just after some advice really...
...over the last few years I haven't been a stranger to health anxiety/hypochondria and I'm sure that an awful lot of my physical 'symptoms' have been generated as a result of mental anxiety. I feel that my medical providers have now boxed me off as a somatizer.
I have got the health anxiety in order to a large extent but had a flare up of sorts last year when my father died. Really strangely my father (who lived away by the way)had been suffering from sciatica and had been backwards and forwards to his GP who advised him they could find nothing wrong...one Friday afternoon his wife took him to A&E as he was in so much pain, they admitted him and he was DX'ed with cancer that afternoon...he died on the Tuesday!
This was a stressful time for everybody but it did play havoc with my health anxiety riddled mind but I managed to accept that **** happens and the unexpected and unexplained exist and cracked on with life.
I have a new symptom...can you guess what it is? Can you guess where I'm going with this? I have had some hip pain and mild sciatica stuff on and off all during my health anxiety phase over 3 years or so but it never lingers and the 'other stuff' always seemed to take precedant anyways. About 6 months ago I started to feel some weirdness going on with my back passage and sort of started to worry about anal cancer I saw a proctologist who examined me and said it was all OK and that he thought my problem was largly mental and that I was fixated on that area...good news.
Over the couple of months I am now finding that the sciatica type pain which used to be pretty mild and short lived is becoming more intense and more chronic...it seems to be with my constantly. My GP's all seem to dismiss it as nothing (...where else did that happen, ho hum!)and all say it is something that everybody is likely to suffer from at some point in life and to learn to live with it. I have voiced my concerns that it could be an entrapement issue due to the weird anal feeling but this has been dismissed as I get told that people experience far worse symptoms if this is the case such as numbness and loss of anal tone and control.
So, this is what has rung the TMS alarm bells! In a way I have no other option that to address it as TMS but I know I need to take the leap of faith required for a TMS DX but this is even harder now due to my fathers situation (it was suggested to him his pain was psychological. What may or may not be telling is that my pain is only really on the cusp of being that painful...it is nagging and annoying but it has never stopped me sleeping. The pain is located in my lower back and deep in my buttock and then an ache travels down into my thigh....I never seem to have the shock type sensation some people complain of but rather the constant deep ache.
What has confused me somewhat is that my pain had diminshed considerably in the middle of last week and I decided to go a a forest hike after 2 miles I could feel the pain returning...I managed to finish the 6 mile walk but since then the pain has been constant and show no sign of going or improving...I dunno but to me this suggests a structural rather than a mental process at work??
Apologies for the long drawn out post but just wanted to set the scene a little. I'm not really a TMS expert so just really wanted opinions/feedback from members as to what they think. Like I mentioned, my medical providers seem unwilling to offer me anything more with this and have not suggested MRI's etc which could open up a totally unnecessarily can of worms anyway. To that end I suppose I have nothing to lose by treating this as TMS...I have pretty bad anxiety at the moment and to compound matters further my mother is also now dealing with a possible cancer DX so I have plenty of stresses and stuff going on that could cause all sorts of physical symptoms I suppose.
Thanks for reading and any input. |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 06:10:33
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This is all classic stuff. Unless you find a way to reduce your health anxiety you'll go from symptom to symptom and doctor to doctor for the rest of your life. It's a miserable existence. No sooner will you get past one symptom than another will pop up to take it's place
I've been increasingly understanding that the endless internal debate concerning whether a given symptom is real or TMS is really not the right issue. In a larger, more important sense, the issue is the high levels of anxiety we're dealing with. That's what's making us sick, and keeping us sick...
So to put a finer point on it, what practical difference does it make if your sciatica is TMS if on at long last recognizing that it is, you're just going to flip out over something else 3 days later?
You seem to be a spiritual guy. Understand and appreciate your own mortality, recognize that such constant fear and worry over illness is in its essence a misunderstanding of your own relative importance in the universe. This is all a fancy way of saying you have to simply learn to relax. It doesn't matter what self-talk or philosophy you adopt to do this, as long as you do it.
I can virtually guarantee that if you do this your current symptom will evaporate into thin air.
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Edited by - art on 08/01/2011 06:12:20 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 09:04:28
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It's obvious you are afraid you may have an un-diagnosed cancer like your Dad, If I were in your shoes I would be too! Modern medicine is really good at finding structural illness--even when it's not the cause but the symptom--that's TMS. In your Dad's case they didn't find his cancer--but maybe they didn't have an opportunity to, I don't know because I wasn't there.
Hypochondria is when you think there's something medically wrong even when you are told by doc's that there isn't. In your case, I would get as many second and third opinions on whether you have cancer until YOU'RE convinced you don't. I don't know much about dx'ing cancer, is there a blood test that can dx it? In your case I would go into my pocket to pay for the tests to make sure something is not missed if your insurance won't pay for more testing and opinions. You know what to look for, your father didn't, so that narrows it down.
DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 10:07:10
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quote:
Originally posted by tennis tom
It's obvious you are afraid you may have an un-diagnosed cancer like your Dad, If I were in your shoes I would be too! Modern medicine is really good at finding structural illness--even when it's not the cause but the symptom--that's TMS. In your Dad's case they didn't find his cancer--but maybe they didn't have an opportunity to, I don't know because I wasn't there.
Hypochondria is when you think there's something medically wrong even when you are told by doc's that there isn't. In your case, I would get as many second and third opinions on whether you have cancer until YOU'RE convinced you don't. I don't know much about dx'ing cancer, is there a blood test that can dx it? In your case I would go into my pocket to pay for the tests to make sure something is not missed if your insurance won't pay for more testing and opinions. You know what to look for, your father didn't, so that narrows it down.
DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
. Advising a hypochondriac to go on seeking medical opinions...2nd, 3rd, 4th opinions....until the hypochondriac is at long last satisfied is laughable. You might as well advise an alcoholic to keep drinking until he's had his fill...
Read his first paragraph again.... |
Edited by - art on 08/01/2011 10:09:41 |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 11:30:44
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here is a prescription I got long time ago for hypochondria from an online friend.
- Stop searching the net. Stay away from google, yahoo, webmd... for 1 months. Don't visit any health forum. Better yet, do not use the internet for anything but work. spend free time with real people, positive people, (or dogs)
- don't watch TV, don't read the news, stay away from negative people.
- Stop focusing on yourself. Spend time thinking about how you can make someone happy today, tomorrow, or nextday. Volunteers, join the gym, call up some old friends and chat. (don't mention your illness). One of the main cause of hypochondria is loneliness and selfish, we think to much about ourselve and not other.
- alway find positive things to do like go on a vacation with some positive friends, go for a walk, go to a museum,... go with someone you trust and enjoy talking to and promise yourself you will not talk about 'you' in this day. Talk about anything but yourself.
- find a good therapist who practice CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) and stick with his/her program. Some people don't like this but this was provened to work in relieving hypochondria
- Every morning when you wake up tell yourself you will not focus on any health issue just for today. You are sick for years and you have not die yet, just for one day you will forget all about your illness and your body. Just one day... then one more day.... No whining, no negative talking for just one day.
He promised me I will be well in about 2 weeks if I follow this prescription with all my heart. Guess what, It did work.
All tms patients are hypochondriac to some degree. We're to wrapped up in our search for anwser to our disease and with the help of Google and webMD and many other useless, negative health forums we have a case of information overload. Negative informations, wrong informations.
If you can do all this you will be cure. |
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Javizy
United Kingdom
76 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 11:39:31
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If the muscles around your spine aren't in good shape, then instead of strong, flexible tissue absorbing impact, ligaments and joints in your spine have to take it. That could explain the pain you experienced during hiking, and if you were carrying anything heavy, like a rucksack, that would probably make matters worse.
Your body is pretty good at recovering by itself though. By stressing yourself out, you're creating all sorts of nasties within your body that sustain inflammation and muscle tension and prevent your immune system from working as it should. Considering that only a relatively small percentage of cancers are considered hereditary, I'd start seeing those nasties as a more significant risk to your health and chances of developing the disease.
You can continue obsessively going to doctors, but all they can really do is either cut you apart or prescribe toxic drugs that rarely treat anything other than symptoms. Until something does seriously break down, the bulk of your health is in your own hands. Fighting anxiety, improving your strength and flexibility, and keeping a close eye on nutrition is likely to do a lot more for you than an MRI scan. |
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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 11:51:25
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Hey chaps, thanks for taking the time to reply is much appreciated.
I feel I may have over egged the health anxiety/hypochondria aspect to this. As mentioned I have suffered from health anxiety for nearly 4 years but this is now far better than it was. I suppose my concern is that this latest 'symptom fixation' is just the sort of catalyst that could send me on the merry go round once again. I have to say that testing etc may resolve and reassure me for a period of time but the hallmark of health anxiety is that this is short lived until a new symptom fixation develops...I am very wary of digging too deep with this, I have been told that I have no red flag symptoms and therefore a reluctance to believe this and getting third and fourth opinions would not be healthy for me...it would be a display of health anxiety.
Yes, it is true that on some level I fear a undiagnosed cancer like my father had but I think this would strike a chord with many people...I am not overcatastrophising and fearing cancer I am more concerned really with attempting to sort the structural from the mental.
I think I am currently fixated on this latest symptom due to the discomfort it is causing me rather than fearing it is a terminal illness...this is actually the opposite of the way I normally think and it the opposite of a health anxiety cognitive interpretation of symptoms.
Confession time....I suppose that my posting originally was still a health anxiety behaviour as I must have been after reassurance, you know somebody to post telling me it sounds like total TMS and that everything is OK. I know over the years that nobody can do this and that whilst I (and others) want the world in black and white it actually has many many grey areas.
The idea of facing up to mortality really strikes a chord as this is something that I put my finger on a couple of years ago as the basis of my health anxieties. I also feel that the constant stress and anxiety that I have placed on my body recently must manifest itself physically as some point and I suppose this is really the crux of the matter with which I'm currently concerned...is this sciatica a strutural issue or a TMS and/or anxiety manifestation. Like I have indicated the only way to see is suck it and see and take that leap of faith and that is totally up to me to have the balls to do.
Thanks again guys. |
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Back2-It
USA
438 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 12:18:15
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quote:
Originally posted by Javizy
If the muscles around your spine aren't in good shape, then instead of strong, flexible tissue absorbing impact, ligaments and joints in your spine have to take it. That could explain the pain you experienced during hiking, and if you were carrying anything heavy, like a rucksack, that would probably make matters worse.
Your body is pretty good at recovering by itself though. By stressing yourself out, you're creating all sorts of nasties within your body that sustain inflammation and muscle tension and prevent your immune system from working as it should. Considering that only a relatively small percentage of cancers are considered hereditary, I'd start seeing those nasties as a more significant risk to your health and chances of developing the disease.
You can continue obsessively going to doctors, but all they can really do is either cut you apart or prescribe toxic drugs that rarely treat anything other than symptoms. Until something does seriously break down, the bulk of your health is in your own hands. Fighting anxiety, improving your strength and flexibility, and keeping a close eye on nutrition is likely to do a lot more for you than an MRI scan.
I have H/A too; yet since I've had THE ONE BIG PROBLEM, the always lurking cancer(which my father died from) is so far down on the scale of worry that it dose not show up.
The point by Javizy about stress and anxiety creating "nasties" is a point that is often soft stroked when dealing with a "somatic" problem. One has to conclude that if Sarno says the pain is real, it is caused by something -- be it decreased blood flow to muscle or nerve--- or something else.
When suffers get Fibromyalgia they are in all sorts of pain all over; yet there is no structural cause. Or is there? There is. It is structural but caused by the mind. The nasties can totally contort your body and cause pain. Costrochondritis is another totally somatic problem; yet it so can twist the rib cage and torso that nerves, muscles and tendons are effected -- and you can imagine not in a good way.
I find it ironic that since I've got THE ONE BIG PROBLEM, that my H/A has been pretty well tempered.
There is one other thing that might be considered, and that is if you are on any meds you may want to check the side effects. Some can be quite "nasty" too and induce muscle stiffness, anxiety, chest pain, you name it.
I've been thinking alot about mortality, and it being a root cause of symptoms. It very well can be. Isn't it strange, though, that here in the West, where we don't face daily life and death situations, we are the ones with the chronic pains.
Our friend Balto has pointed out that when it gets real, and death may be literally lurking, there is no chronic anything, despite the stress.
How many docs can one go to? They are guessing for the most part, and sometimes they guess right and often they do not, especially when they are trained in specific fields of medicine.
"Bridges Freeze Before Roads" |
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balto
839 Posts |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2011 : 13:50:56
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T.P.
I'm not sure it's all that useful to try ascribing degrees of hypochondria. You either have it or you don't (God knows I do), and if you have it it's not a great way to live.
It sounds to me like you're establishing a difficult and ultimately self-perpetuating dynamic for yourself: anxiety/fear of this that or the other health related issue leading to anxiety and fear that these very feelings will harm you. That's a nasty vicious circle.
Bear in mind you can't reassure your way out of this by google, or seeing doctors, or asking questions on the forum. There are always doubts and your mind will always move in that direction...
My advice: assume TMS pretty much in every case. Find a way to shut your mind off when feeling fear. You can't feel fear if you don't allow your body the physical concomitants. Breathe, or meditate, or practice different forms of mindfulness. You can get better, but it will take application and courage. |
Edited by - art on 08/01/2011 13:53:11 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2011 : 09:01:47
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quote:
Originally posted by Taoist Pilgrim
...Really strangely my father...had been suffering from sciatica and had been backwards and forwards to his GP who advised him they could find nothing wrong...one Friday afternoon his wife took him to A&E as he was in so much pain, they admitted him and he was DX'ed with cancer that afternoon...he died on the Tuesday!
...My GP's all seem to dismiss it as nothing (...where else did that happen, ho hum!)and all say it is something that everybody is likely to suffer from at some point in life and to learn to live with it.
I am the opposite of a hypochondriac, I procrastinate seeing docs unless I need to be wheeled in on a gurney. But, if I were in the OP's shoes, I would exhaust all dx's regarding cancer until I was thoroughly convinced they had not missed cancer as they tragically did his father's case.
The OP lives in the UK and I don't trust a socialized medical system to care for me on anywhere near as high a level as my own doctor does. That system blew it fatally in his father's case.
I don't know what tests the OP has had, maybe he has exhausted all of them. The fear of dying from an misdiagnosed cancer, is nothing to be laughed at. In the US, you can get an MRI on the spot, in places like the UK you can die by the time your number comes up for one. That's why people in Canada, who are seriously ill and can afford it, come to the US for quality medical care.
From a few paragraphs on this Forum, it is impossible to ascertain a poster's complete mindbody picture. Therefore, in a situation like this, that could have grave consequences, I would er on the side of caution. Ultimately, we are responsible for sorting out our own health, I've played too much tennis with doctors to trust all their calls.
DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
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Edited by - tennis tom on 08/02/2011 11:14:51 |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2011 : 12:55:20
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Look at this objectively Tom. Given OP's history of hypochondria and TMS (his doctors have caught on too evidently), what would you say is far more likely? That he co-opted his fathers sciatica in the way we TMS'ers love to glom onto things we fear, or that suddenly, years earlier than his father, he's contracted the same cancer.
How many doctors would you recommend he see? 2. 3. 5? At what point would you suppose a hypochondriac will pronounce himself satisfied? He's seen a physician who's checked him out presumably for the same cancer his father had and has been declared "fine."
The very last thing I'd be suggesting to a TMS hypo is that he continue to seek out more doctors. Really pretty antithetical to the usual way of looking at things around here.
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Edited by - art on 08/02/2011 12:56:33 |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2011 : 17:05:57
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Art, I have no idea how many doctors he's seen, he didn't state. I have no idea what they were testing him for, he didn't state. Since it seems you feel it's so important for you to be right, let me say you are right then, objectively or subjectively, which ever you prefer. I've learned not to argue with people who buy ink by the litre.
DR. SARNO'S 12 DAILY REMINDERS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0dKBFwGR0g
TAKE THE HOLMES-RAHE STRESS TEST
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_Rahe_stress_scale
Some of my favorite excerpts from _THE DIVIDED MIND_ :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
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Taoist Pilgrim
United Kingdom
25 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2011 : 00:52:47
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Thanks again.
The reason I mentioned the cancer with my father was that I found it rather ironic that I symptom shifted onto the very ailment that my father presented with...I'm wondering if this adds some fuel to the idea of my issue being TMS/somatic rather than being a structural issue.
Yes, I suppose on some deep dark level there is always the fear that I have the very cancer that claimed my father and yes, a few years ago I would have been after 101 opinions from GP's far and wide but the facts are I have been diagnosed with sciatica, a symptom that untold people experience, and I have been told there are no red flags to warrant any worry of cancer. In the past this would not have been enough but I'm at the stage when I'm happy to accept that. Sure, if further down the line the sciatica hasn't improved or got worse then my GP has agreed that further investigations would then be reasonable...I agree with this. The leap from sciaitica to cancer is a huge one to make and yep the cards fell poorly for my dad but that happens and there is only so much you can do to control such a thing. I'm not going down the route of doctor shopping as it just leads me into a dead end avenue of further anxiety and frustration.
Whilst I'm not fearing the 'could be' of the sciatica as much as I would have done in the past my concern at the moment is really understanding if I'm dealing with a structural or TMS related issue...as I mentioned earlier I suppose it is a tad silly to expect this question to be magically answered on a forum as the answer ultimatly lies in taking that leap of faith and putting in the hard yards.
As has been briefly alluded to, I think that health anxiety and TMS/somatisation are quite closely entwined. Both really are the by products of a self absorbed and unhealthly preoccupation and I feel in many ways are the realisation of what happens when you just don't really have enough in life to engage with.
Anyway, thanks for the replies. To art and TT, sorry if I've stirred up a hornets nest that was not my intention. I can see and understand both points of view but art is quite right that health anxiety unfortunatly does not allow 'reasonable' behaviour in regards to me trying to control my own health and what would be right and normal for somebody else would contribute to further anxiety for me.
regards |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 08/03/2011 : 14:06:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Taoist Pilgrim
What has confused me somewhat is that my pain had diminshed considerably in the middle of last week and I decided to go a a forest hike after 2 miles I could feel the pain returning...I managed to finish the 6 mile walk but since then the pain has been constant and show no sign of going or improving...I dunno but to me this suggests a structural rather than a mental process at work??
This comment tells me you either do not fully understand or accept the TMS diagnosis. I suggest you re-read the part of Dr. Sarno's book that discusses conditioning as it is a key part of TMS.
You seem to be on the right track, and on some level you want to treat your symptoms as TMS, but something is holding you back. I suggest you focus on the psychological realm and accept the word of medical doctors that there is nothing seriously wrong with you.
You said it best yourself: "I suppose I have nothing to lose by treating this as TMS..." |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/06/2011 : 11:00:17
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"You said it best yourself: "I suppose I have nothing to lose by treating this as TMS..."
This is a very useful point. In many cases, one can perform what amounts to an experiment with little or no downside.
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2011 : 00:07:14
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My sister who died of cancer last year (in the UK!) seemed to me to have manifested it. She kept going to docs and demanding that they give her more and more tests. They would find her to be clear, and then she would go online and find some test they hadn't given her. Because it was free health-care, she was able to distract herself for ages doing this. She was very angry about everything (especially my existence).
I watched her go for more and more tests that she had demanded, until finally they found a slight greyness on an x-ray. She insisted it be biopsied and, HAZA! she had the extremely rare, one-in-a-million form of cancer (adrenal cancer) that killed her.
The weird thing was that I came home from her very stressful funeral, including very stressful final interactions with her, and found that I had cancer (a very common and not serious kind) which I had surgery for. I would never have found out, because I don't want all those tests, but was bleeding so heavily my doc insisted.
Just thought this story mildly relevant to the discussion. Love to all. Chill, brothers!
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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golden_girl
United Kingdom
128 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2011 : 19:37:46
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Wavy, that's a very interesting story. In a way, I think we have less of the 'doctor shopping' thing BECAUSE of the free healthcare (UNLESS YOU'RE GOING TO DIE YOU CAN'T SEE ANYONE FOR 6 MONTHS SO HOLD OFF! Sorry, black humour...)
I have no one else really to tell this to, so I hope you don't mind me saying this here...
My mother has a twin (non identical) sister and was adopted with this sister during the war. They had, and I (and they, as much as they've said!) really believe this, a much better life (financially and otherwise) than they would have done if they hadn't been adopted.
My mother's twin sister has been ill, it seems, most days of her life. When I was growing up, she had tinnitus, panic attacks, pain syndromes, all sorts of malaise - and now she has dementia, to the point she is, well, gone.
My mother has been ill about twice in her life. She has had very short recurrences of back pain (I tried to point out 'TMS' to her a few years ago and she said 'Well, the last time it came on at Christmas... but I don't think that meant anything' haha), and a fibroid/hysterectomy. Oh, age onset macular degeneration. Other than that, top of the world.
Now, my mother, who is pushing 70, is showing signs of forgetfulness, unfounded stress and anxiety, and a change, really, in behaviour. Everyone is seeing this as a demise into dementia, like her sister. I think she's just getting old (much as this makes me want to scream into my TMS-ness!)
I don't know what my point was. My mum doesn't really like her sister, but read a book about it, went to a course, (about dementia) and tried to help in some way. Now everyone thinks she's got it. It makes me feel sick. Don't people get OLD anymore, without it being ALZHEIMER'S?!
It seems to me, that Alzheimer's et al is the new... TMS. The one that gets you. I guess few will agree, as it's like saying cancer is TMS. I just don't know.
"F.E.A.R.
Forgive Everyone And Remember
For Everything A Reason"
Ian Brown |
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alexis
USA
596 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2011 : 06:16:02
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quote:
Originally posted by golden_girl
It makes me feel sick. Don't people get OLD anymore, without it being ALZHEIMER'S?!
It seems to me, that Alzheimer's et al is the new... TMS. The one that gets you. I guess few will agree, as it's like saying cancer is TMS. I just don't know.
I will be the first to disagree. Alzheimer's and other senile dementias are, unfortunately, very very real and I've spent years of my life living with cases and researching everything I can. These are very typical cases in people who were never sick or TMS-y, and the reality is much sadder and more stressful and more real than anyone who hasn't lived with it yet will want to accept. Denial is the norm. I guarantee you that the first instinct of most who read what I'm writing is to think "she's exagerrating; the reality isn't that bad". The reality is that bad. (note there are a few other things like B vitamin deficiency that are reversable, but in the long run, without new medical advances, most people will get one form or another of dementia if they live long enough)
We're seeing it "increase" now because people live longer, have more anesthesia and chemotherapy and diabetes and obesity (all major risk factors) and we know how diagnose better, and realize that the early forgetfulness symptoms really often (usually) are early dementia symtoms (despite the main stream media's fuzzy interpretation). The media plays feel good story after feed good story about what "you can do to ward of Alzheimer's!" Well, yeah...avoid head injury, don't smoke, lose weight. Sorry, if you've really read the stats, you'll know that for now that's about it.
Head injury and genetics...everything else is a drop in the bucket unless you really cherry-pick your studies. You'll find one study out there to support almost anything, but the large reviews indicate reading crossword puzzles and most dietary changes and all those other little ideas as mostly just placebos. Take them up if you want, but I'd far, far more strongly advise enjoying life to the fullest you can fugally do and saving for retirement. Raise your kids so they aren't overweight, because once they are odds are they won't lose it. Encourage sports with low head injury.
Then put your money somewhere with safe growth prospects and try to sit back and forget about it, because while I believe in learning perspective that finds politics amusing and revels in human foibles, I have never, ever found the perspective to find anything good in dementia. It just plain sucks.
Living in denial about the horrors of dementia was one of my key TMS triggers. If you see it, curse it, hate it, fight it if you think you can, but don't hide your head in the sand and pretend everything's OK. It's not, and if you hit this nightmare with a loved one it'll be the worst thing you've ever faced. Get the support you need and move forward head on. |
Edited by - alexis on 08/10/2011 06:29:05 |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2011 : 20:11:09
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My elderly mother has senile dementia and knows less with each passing week it seems. It's frightening, sad, and stressful in the extreme. To make matters worse, as alexis notes, family members are in denial. It's a constant battle on many fronts...
If it happens to me, I swear I'll take the gas pipe before it's too late. |
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balto
839 Posts |
Posted - 08/10/2011 : 21:16:38
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quote:
Originally posted by art
My elderly mother has senile dementia and knows less with each passing week it seems. It's frightening, sad, and stressful in the extreme. To make matters worse, as alexis notes, family members are in denial. It's a constant battle on many fronts...
If it happens to me, I swear I'll take the gas pipe before it's too late.
My dad told me my grandmom had senile dementia too. He said he wish he would get it because he saw my grandmom went away so peaceful. She has not a care left in this earthly world. She passed away before I was born so I never know. |
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Sciatica...Structural or TMS, Opinions Please.
