Posted by Q (198.64.206.92) on February 06, 2000 at 03:47:26:
In Reply to: To all: When is your check-out time? posted by Francois on February 05, 2000 at 22:53:59:
Francois, and others at this stage, I have struggled with CH for a good 10 years, perhaps most of my life undiagnosed, and have come to this conclusion: That CH itself won't kill me, but the depression that comes along with the prolonged CH-cluster periods can. Let me explain.
See, I have come to believe that the CH won’t kill you because it needs to keep you alive! That's strange, but the pain dies if it kills its host, and I believe that it won't kill itself! It is too intelligent for that! That's why it acts like it does. There are thousands of ways to treat the pain, treat the attacks, treat the clusters and guide you in the ways to cope with the condition. A lot of good folks really are working on this problem and a good solution will not be far away.
However, the real villain in all of this is the depression that sneaks up on you. It hides behind the pain and before you know it, it has dropped its black veil on you, and THATS what causes the ideas about ending it all. Depression does not have the intelligence that the CH-disease has and does not have the survival instinct of the CH-disease. THE GOOD NEWS is that depression is easy to treat! Talk to your docs and let them know you are depressed! The funny thing is that, in my humble experience, when you also treat the depression the CH-attacks seem to diminish, if not break the cycle altogether!
The triad that we have to work on is the pain-stress-depression cycle. When the shit really starts to hit the fan I have to address all three at the same time.
If you can get to Houston, let's go sailing! I'll provide the boat! If you want to go diving, lets go to Belize; I'll provide the house. Don't just sit around spiraling into the maelstrom! I've been to the edge, and the view is not pretty, but all you have to do is reach out for help!