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[msparticularity]

As I age, I'm more and more convinced that the secret to physical and mental well being centers on food and sleep, with a good dose of attitude.  Bad combinations or unhealthy portions of the former, too little of the latter and a bad 'tude make for bad health. 

So true! I think that for autoimmune disorders in particular this is true because of the way all of these things feed back through our immune systems.

The heat finally broke yesterday here, and now my achiness is far more manageable.  Ankles and wrists hurt today.... go figure.

I'm that weird RA sufferer who suffers from heat; we are a small but definite minority, apparently. Oddly enough, I also do much better in a humid environment (my new home) than a dry one (where I've been for the past 20+ years). I'm going to be interested to see how more heat (usually not good) interacts with more humidity (generally a very good thing) when I get to our new home in July.

[psychdiva]

As I age, I'm more and more convinced that the secret to physical and mental well being centers on food and sleep, with a good dose of attitude. 

The sleep thing is really critical for me with the Crohn's disease. I haven't yet found foods that make it worse or better, but I haven't tried very hard to sort that out. I'm afraid I'll find out that something I love, like bread, aggravates my symptoms. How's that for a head-in-the-sand attitude?!

[tenured_feminist]

I hate allergy season. The "no side effects" drugs make me just dopey enough to take the edge off of my writing. The last few days I have had a lot of trouble with aphasia.

[sikora]

I was just thinking about this thread and other jobs I have had in my life. 

I was having a lot of trouble with muscle pain when I worked at Target.  I asked to be put on an express lane one weekend because lifting the grocery bags sideways was painful.  The supervisor accommodated me, and I was on a express lane for 1 hour, and then I was put on a regular line because I was fast and the store was busy.  Without a Dr excuse, they didn't have to accommodate me. Then Jan 21, I fell down the stairs and dislocated my shoulder.  Owwww.  I was off for a week, and I had to have a written, official doctor's excuse to be off (without pay, of course).  My shoulder is still troublesome.  After a week, I went right back to the grocery line, lifting heavy bags sideway, reaching sideways, etc.  My shoulder hurt bad enough to keep me up at night.  One reason I was so glad to quit a month later. 

Another cashier there had carpel tunnel problems, wore a brace, and a medical certificate, and was allowed to work express lanes.  But every week or two, she would get "counselled" about her "refusal" to work grocery lines.  She wanted to quit, but for a variety of reasons, she was stuck. 

As for opportunity for adequate rest, forget it in Target.  From one week to the next, I had no idea what days I would be off that week (never weekend, and never two days in a row).  One day I might work 2pm to 10pm, the next 930am to 6, the next 11am to 1pm.  I was always exhausted, and was abusing caffeine like crazy.  I mean, lots of coffee, Red Bull, and No Doze tablets, just to feel okay.  And if  I stayed a year, I'd get a 15 cent raise (not more than that because I had "attendance problems" because I missed a week for a shoulder injury.  Plus, I was lousy at selling the credit cards.

None of this was personal, it was just that the store assumed that low level workers are shirkers and malingers, and not to be trusted.  Maybe with good reason, I don't know.  It is true that the lower one is in the job market, the less control one has over the conditions of one's work.

Not to minimize anybody's struggle, but don't have a chronic disease and work big box retail.  Especially not an intestinal one.  It's hard to get off the cashier line in a hurry.

You know, I still get s*** from some family members for quitting Target.

[lenniel]

I'm sorry to hear about the aphasia - will this go away as your body acclimates?  Or will you have to wait until allergy season passes and you can get off the drugs?  That can be a terrifying feeling.

Psychdiva - can your doctor at least give you some guidance on the food thing so you don't have to become a guinea pig?  Experimenting with diet is not everyone's cup of tea, even when it is necessary.  I do support complete crankiness when confronted with special diet restrictions.  It is not fir to have to be restrictive, no matter how good for us it may be!  I hope, though, that you find some good solutions so you feel better?

Everyone doing okay today? gourmetless and MsP - feeling less achy, I hope?

[sikora]

I am so sorry for my last post in this thread, it was very pissy, inappropriate, and uncalled for.  I am angry and sad about another batch of bad new in my life, and I let it cloud my judgment. 

Everybody, do whatever you have to do to keep your health insurance.  Either that, or emigrate.

[kissa_mau]

You know sikora, there is nothing worse than being super sick, but having to stand up and deal with customers anyway. I have issues with passing out and standing up for long periods of time, and before I was diagnosed a number of year ago, I was working retail for the money (yay unemployable master's degree...). I would crawl to the stockroom, pass out, and come back to my stupid register area. I would make it through the end of the night so that some crap manager could make a point and hold us all over an extra 30 minutes, just because he could.

With my past two years, I would have been unemployable for anything except what I am doing now. Thank goodness I'm on an upswing, and can, for instance, walk again.

I missed who was having aphasia, but you have my sympathies. That is a scary symptom- you are going to be so relieved when it passes!

[spork]

[. . . ]

As I age, I'm more and more convinced that the secret to physical and mental well being centers on food and sleep, with a good dose of attitude. 

[. . .]

You forgot sex.

[msparticularity]

[. . . ]

As I age, I'm more and more convinced that the secret to physical and mental well being centers on food and sleep, with a good dose of attitude. 

[. . .]

You forgot sex.

Isn't that sort of integral to attitude?

[lenniel]

True.  And considering some of the illnesses and unpredicability here, food and sleep IS sexy...:)

I had a long, thoughtful post to go with this in response to some of the other ideas, but I think such things have been said better in earlier parts of this thread by others, particularly anon4now. 

[gourmetless]

-waves to all-

Things are good here!  BF is up for a few days, so life is good!  He is willing to rub shoulders and legs, and just a loving touch is nice to get through the day.  Also, the weather is cooler and rainy, so I don't have to tote water to keep my herbs going.  The heat is worse than the humidity for my pain level, so I will take cooler and wet.

Also, I get to cook every night, which is really good mental medicine for me.  (losing words today, sorry.)  I miss the creativeness of cooking, since I live by myself for the time being and just can't justify either the dishes or throwing away too many leftovers.  The Gent makes his requests (its his Bday weekend), plays at the sous chef, and helps with the dishes.  Good therapy for pain, good together time for both of us.

Tonight: the request on the table is chicken piccata, mushroom risotto, and broiled asparagus with prosociutto.  We have a nice prosecco to go with it.  He always chooses the same birthday meal, so it is quite the occasion.  We also found a beautiful raw milk cheese for appetizers (with a fruity french red), and went to country farmstand for the asparagus and greens.  Fresh strawberries for dessert.  Too humid to make pasta, anyway.

So, its good right now... but I usually take an emotional and physical dive when he goes home.  -sigh-  Oh, for the tenure track when we can be together again......

Happy weekend all.  Be well and treat yourself better.

[psychdiva]

I hope everyone on this thread is feeling well and doing well.

I'm posting this in the hope that those of you who've battled depression may have some ideas that would be helpful in my situation. I have a 20-year history of major depressive disorder. Psychotherapy has helped a lot, as has medication. Over the past 4-6 months, I've run into a symptom/problem that's resistant to treatment: although my mood is even and I have a reasonable amount of energy and no other significant symptoms, I feel really empty. It's not the anguished emptiness I feel when the depression is bad - it's more like a sense of inertia or 'blankness.' I don't feel hopeless or helpless or sad, but yet I'm not looking forward to anything. I don't have any sense of zest. I feel like I'm just marking time.

I'm not positive that this is the depression "talking." It could be a mid-40's existential crisis sort of thing. The psychiatrist who prescribes my meds offered to increase the dosage of the antidepressant I'm taking, but the last time I upped the dose on this medication (Cymbalta), it made me very sleepy, and I don't want to sleep the summer away. My therapist and I are in agreement that we've hit a brick wall in terms of figuring this out and getting through it or over it.

Yes, I am the PsychDiva, but we psych folks are generally as clueless about ourselves as folks in any other field, and I haven't been able to figure this out on my own. Any suggestions? Thank you so much.

[dept_geek]

PD, the last time I weighed in on what I did for these kinds of episodes, I wasn't clear enough on this is what worked for me. So your indulgence for a second:

Hey - this is what I did, and you should modify to meet you own needs.

OK. Here is what worked for me: A radical radical change of scenery. Not just change rooms. The last time I was in a major I can't deal and the whole world is dead to me state, I left. I changed careers. Quit a job & went to school. Radically changing everything. Changed states. Bam!  having to deal with a whole new set of things forced me out the funk and in to hyperorganize mode. When I came out on the other end, I was ready to attack new problems and move forward.

Maybe that's too radical. (OK. It probably *is* too radical) But for me, a whiplash-indusing change is what got me out of the "I want to sit on the couch and stare in to space" mode.

YMMV. Check with your doc first. All the other small print stuff.

[psychdiva]

The last time I was in a major I can't deal and the whole world is dead to me state, I left. I changed careers. Quit a job & went to school. Radically changing everything.

I thought of doing something like this, to the extent that something like that would be possible given Mr. P's job, the house we own, etc...but I can't even think of what I'd want to do. Even what I'd want to do locally. I just want to read and hang with the dogs.  :-(

[algoa]

The last time I was in a major I can't deal and the whole world is dead to me state, I left. I changed careers. Quit a job & went to school. Radically changing everything.

I thought of doing something like this, to the extent that something like that would be possible given Mr. P's job, the house we own, etc...but I can't even think of what I'd want to do. Even what I'd want to do locally. I just want to read and hang with the dogs.  :-(

Sometimes a mood stabilizer can help after anti-depressants fail.  Check out med info on soft bipolar.
http://www.psycheducation.org/start/BPIntro.htm