Meet, FMS Disability Advocate, Don Powell: Part II

The humor stayed with me as I grew and got lean and beyond mean. I had a temper that scared me. Throwing kids on top of '60's and 70's era full-size vans just to do it wasn't normal behavior for a 15 to 17 year old. Of course, I still made jokes...everyone thought I'd be a comic. I was the class clown, but I was a straight A student so I got away with amazing things.

Now to Fibro...the humor helps because it helps not only when I'm down, but when others are down. Sometimes it just shakes things up. I'll post something on a message board that will just be a wake up for everyone different than everybody else.

Now I wear what I like to wear and it's okay because I "have" to wear comfortable clothes...T-shirts with the collars cut out and the sleeves cut off. I haven't had a hair cut since the fall of '96...split ends keep it at about the middle of my back.

When I talk to people it is the same thing...old friends know that I can say anything at any time. I go off on tangents, and can come back to the subject (if Fibro lets me remember) in a heartbeat...cracking wise all the time.

Bipolar is a wonderful thing...it has always been there letting me tell people what I thought without feeling guilty and doing it in a humorous but rarely cruel way...I saved cruelty for those who were cruel to others. They learned that humor can hurt too.

Fibro Funnies on the Men with Fibro site is one of my favorite places,but we are always trading barbs...even after serious posts. We know when to be serious, but we know when to lighten up and ease the tension too. It takes a bit of a balancing act, and once in a while people don't understand. Fortunately...my humor is often so far out there that even my insults go flying by most people at warp speed. There are times when I'll write something one day, and come back the next, and be hysterical because I don't even remember how I came up with it.

What other survival strategies (treatments, meds, alternative therapies etc.) have you found helpful?

Survival is not of the fittest, but of the ones who can just get through each day. Every one of us is different. Most people with Fibro can do aerobics, and take OTC pain relievers, and go on very

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