Advice: No matter how shitty things can get,
as long as you can laugh at yourself, it's not so bad.
I've received some disheartening e-mails from readers about my last post. Listen up -- depression is awful. I'm no stranger to depression and suffered too long after my diagnosis of MS. And just when I think I beat depression, depression ends up being the cause of my turning into a very cold, stone-hearted bitch who is unable to love, trust and care for another person besides herself.
I remember the day I clearly snapped out of that depression, when I went to my first support group. However, some of us can't "snap out" and as someone who loves you (and is just not trying to earn her PhD in Psychology) I urge you to talk to someone. Or at the very least, blog about it, write it down -- release that shitty juju, my friend.
Other things that could help?
- Make sure you have enough fat and protein in your diet.
- Make sure you are supplementing with Vitamin D. 2k is the bare minimum and many doctors recommend you take 5k - 10k IU per day.
- Eat nutrient dense foods (fish, whole veggies, butter, etc.) You also may want to try cutting gluten and wheat out of your diet, it has a surprisingly negative affect on much of the population, including brain fog and just generally feeling "down."
Life can bring us down. Life can play some pretty cruel tricks, but having a self-pity party for 1 will make you miss out on all the awesomeness life has to offer, even if some of it sucks.
Sooo.. let me end this on a posi, yet humiliating note, and tell you all a story:
I have an irrational fear of elevators. Deathly scared. When I was a kid, I was on an elevator that stalled out and it fell a floor (but to me it felt like 1000000 floors). Ever since, I hate elevators. My stomach goes in knots, I start to sweat and things start to get really dizzy. And even though friends think my fear is funny, the boys I date swear to GOD think it's the most hilarious thing in the universe.
For some reason, dudes like to laugh at me when I'm completely terrified out of my mind.
A few weeks ago, a guy booked us a room in Atlantic City at a really nice hotel for the night. He failed to mention that our room was on the 15th floor. Making matters worse, it was a glass elevator. To me, it might as well have been a glass elevator of death. I start to get nervous, I start to sweat, and that dude cannot stop laughing. So maybe around the 10th floor, I let out a little pee. Not a lot of pee, but the little kind you do if you laugh too hard. Instead of having a nervous break-down or totally being humiliated at that point, I start to laugh with him. I'm on a romantic night out, with one of the most handsome boys ever and I slightly urinate on myself over my irrational fear of elevators.
Point is -- it feels good to laugh at yourself once in awhile.
P.S. -- There are a million and one blogs talking about disease, but not many who write about what it's like to go through illness and maintain a normal, happy life. My friend and Sunny reader, Melody, has started her very own blog. Check it out! Melody's Blog
P.P.S -- I live under the same roof as the most amazing person on the entire planet.
