Finding ways around your problems

I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR. Terry Gross the host was interviewing a man who had ammassed over 15,000 recordings of daily life, music, and other things from the 1940's to when he died in 1998.

Teh man had amazing recordings, had built his own recording device, and then sold it with the understanding that people who bought it would agree to trade recordings with him.

The thing was, he was a horrible agoraphobic, he could not travel outside his small communiuty in New York City. But in the interview i was struck about how happy he was to have travelled to other places, even though he couldnt do it physically. He found a way around his problems.

SOme times i feel in dealing with people that they are looking for a simple ending to the problems, instead of thinking of how can they live with the problem and mitigate it so it doesnt cause so much distress. Pills are great, they have helped me greatly in the begining, but i have been pill free the most part of two years now. I still suffer the occasional BP problems, but i have found many ways to mitigate the problems so they dont affect me as much.

Can you live with your illness, and find a common ground to have a truce? That is for you to decide and think about. My way may not work for you, it involves really changing your thinking patterens to find solutions that may seem strange to normal people, but work well for me. Im just say to try looking at your life differently, and maybe you might be able to find an understanding with your problems that turn negatives into positives.

It is said somewhere that the chinese character for problem is also the same character for opertunity. If so are you missing opptuninty in your life to perhaps change the direction it is going by listening to "normal" people tell you how you should solve your problems.

Just some thoughts on a hot day. Hope all is well with those who read this.

Peace. Bill

Great post Bill. You are so right; this illness is really how we look at it and chose to deal with it. I know for years I just allowed the illness to control my life and never made an effort to educate myself and look at it differently. Now I accept this part of my life and know that I can put the effort in every day to manage my symptoms and live a healthy lifestyle.

Cheers, (non-alcoholic of course :)
M.