During an ER visit, because of excruciating pain in the left side of my chest, I became very upset when the physician on call - first wanted to give me a shot of Demerol, and secondly insisted on giving me a prescription for Darvocet. At my adamant refusal of either alternative the doctor then asked why I had come there for help if I refused to accept it? My reply was "Well, I just wanted you to wave your magic wand and make it all go away." Still in denial? Oh yeah! Needless to say he was a little disgusted with my response. As I came to the realization that acceptance was still an issue for me I wondered if it might be for others as well.
Accepting any chronic illness, like fibromyalgia, can be a struggle for many of us. How you navigate the process of coming to terms with your own diagnosis may depend on your outlook on life in general - whether you are an optimist, pessimist - eternal optimist, or back-slider (somewhere in between).
For some, acceptance seems to fall rapidly on the heels of being diagnosed. A diagnosis may bring you a measure of relief - by providing a means of escape from a job you are no longer capable of managing - opening new avenues of employment that otherwise might not have been explored - or simply by allaying your fears that you are not crazy or a hypochondriac. These people are usually optimists, who tend to possess a positive outlook on life in general, and accepting a chronic illness is just part of the deal. They are the ones who keep reminding the rest of us to keep searching for that silver lining.
At the other extreme are those people who will never accept the fact they have been diagnosed with a life-long illness. They will spend precious moments of their lives chasing after illusive miracle cures because they will never make peace with it. For them it is a life-sentence with no foreseeable future. These people tend to be pessimists who see only the negative side of any given situation. On the other hand, depending on your perspective, these same people can be seen as eternal optimists who refuse to give up.
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