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Wisdom for dealing with Lyme/pandemic stress

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Posted 1/18/2022 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Hey guys, for the past year I’ve been seriously wondering if I’d die and struggling to find a good mindset to deal with the uncertainties. Loved ones try to help, but it’s hard for them to give advice when it’s not a problem most of them have faced.

I’ve found that literature coming from world war 2 has been helpful. I’m reading a fictional book about a bookseller living through the blitz in London, and found I relate to their situations where on one hand they try to go on with regular life and on the other, they see the grim realities of life not being certain all around them.

It also is kind of a nice way to think about yourself, since I my mind the world war 2 generation was one of the bravest generations (no matter which side of the war you were on) having to cope with so much.
Posted 1/18/2022 3:39 PM (GMT 0)
perhaps consider reading some of the stoic philosophers - or maybe some of the authors and proponents of their ideas today

in essence the challenges we face today are only variations on a theme of challenges humans have been facing since time immemorial - and these guys developed most of the best coping strategies that still work today a couple of millennia ago

one of the current stoic authors that comes to mind is Ryan Holiday
Posted 1/18/2022 5:27 PM (GMT 0)
I haven’t heard of Ryan holiday, but I did read victor frankl’s (psychologist Holocaust survivor) book early on in my illness
Posted 1/18/2022 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with Garzie, regarding the stoics. If you like audio books, here's a book by Ryan Holiday.

The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday (Full Audiobook)
https://youtu.be/bhr748v7ufi

Eckhart Tolle is another person to whom I enjoy listening. His ideas have been very helpful to me. There's many different audio and video of him on YouTube, too.
Posted 1/18/2022 8:49 PM (GMT 0)
Had to read your post twice- wasn't sure what you were asking.

Having been here a while, there's more than a few people who came to the conclusion that death might be closing in on them. I had a week like that, the lowest health point in my life, was like my whole body was shutting down and then I woke up 80% blind. That dip improved fast back to the normal low, which was better, but still sucked.

I looked at life as a physical endurance event, since thats what I once excelled at. So I know survival mode has an end to it. But that thought wont work for everyone. Maybe just think of something similar that was extremely difficult and you overcame it.

If that's not happened yet, maybe your current illness will be it. If thats the case I see why your looking at history events ect. Ive heard a lot of first hand experience from WWII (family) survivors since childhood (RIP to all), truly amazingly brutal what some went through. Ive been told about: near death experiences, pow war camp train escape, crashing in enemy territory, and being pronounced dead to family via letter, only to LIVE and enjoy freedom once again.

I am now the family keeper of our historic war artifacts, photos, clothing, maps, letters, dog-tags from two ally countries, ect, so you kind of got me remembering them/this mentioning WWII. My past illness is nothing compared to what they saw, experienced, and the lifelong horrific memories after that. I have a lot to be grateful for and visit a national war cemetery every few years with that in mind while "visiting" past elders of family and relatives.
Posted 1/18/2022 9:04 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah, for me a lot of my trouble has been trying to figure out the balance between fighting to live and accepting that I may die. Because it isn’t healthy to live constantly fearing death, even when death lurks near, yet it also isn’t good to live denying bleak realities.

I’m not naive enough to think my problem has never been faced before, in fact, I think almost everyone has to face this problem unless they die super fast and unexpectedly. But people often don’t talk about these things since in the west death is the elephant in the room everyone tries to ignore. It was just nice to be able to read accounts of ordinary people finding ways to cope with these types of long term extraordinary problems.

And you’re right I look pretty weak and pathetic compared to the family I had that lived through world war 2. I supposed you could say I’m belatedly trying to learn from their examples.
Posted 1/18/2022 9:25 PM (GMT 0)
They didn't have many choices and were acting on natural instinct to live, or were forced to conquer.

There are some good healing posts here. Maybe someone can bump up a few.
Posted 1/18/2022 10:25 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Astro for the reminder - time to bump up the Success Story thread
Posted 1/18/2022 10:33 PM (GMT 0)
Have you ever read The Hiding Place? It's a really great book, and it really helped me with those questions.

It really amazed me how someone could go through something so awful and be able to see good come from it.
Posted 1/18/2022 11:32 PM (GMT 0)
I probably should read the hiding place. I’ve been avoiding it because I’m not sure I can take a story that traumatic. I do know corrie ten boom’s general story and I think her and her sister are great. I recently listened to a very abridged biography of her, and it was very inspiring. I particularly liked the part where her sister insisted they thank God for the fleas, only later to find out the fleas are what caused the **** guards to leave them alone so they could do things the guards usually wouldn’t have tolerated.
Posted 1/18/2022 11:35 PM (GMT 0)
I was afraid it would be too traumatic too--but it wasn't.

I liked that part about the fleas too. I also like that it is very well written. A lot of modern biographies just seem to be thrown together kind of haphazardly, at least in my opinion.
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