Posted by gary g on November 25, 1998 at 19:37:15:
In Reply to: HAPPY THANKSGIVING! posted by M on November 25, 1998 at 01:40:37:
AMEN to that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it has taken a long time to get thru my thick skull, but I finally realized a few clusters ago that though it is always uncertain what can be done about the attacks, it is ALWAYS possible to ease the burden a bit by concentrating on my attitude - - no doubt whatever that ANXIETY drives the pain level up, and intensifies the whole cluster
my biggest enemies in the whole CH struggle are self-pity and fear/projection
to ease the self-pity we can concentrate on everything and anything positive in our lives, the fact that our disease tho painful is NOT terminal and apparently goes away in late middle age (so they say - and I'm counting on it !!!! will be 49 next month), and for us veteran clusterheads - the MIRACLE of this internet community - no more flailing about in the dark always doubting ourselves !!!
as far as projection/fear goes - that is a matter of getting into the whole one-day-at-a-time spiritual approach; when I have an attack, I try to absolutely refuse to let my head get racing on ANYTHING but sliding through it as peacefully as possible - just REFUSE to give all those doom & gloom thoughts free rent in my head
I've had these SOBs for over 25 years and realize how difficult doing that can be - and I don't always succeed; but I GUARANTEE the more you can shift focus to the positive and accepting (which is very different from giving up ) the easier a time you will have
when I finally learned that ACCEPTING this malady allowed me to much more calmly proceed to deal with it in a rational manner, an incredible amount of the burden was lifted
until we find a CURE (if ever) I'll take "better" any day ! hoping the same for all of you
thanks for being here, it took me 25 years to find the rest of you
gary