MS support and MS social
connections
How
important is it for those with M S to Find Social Connections?
As
our MS symptoms become worse, and our degree
of ms disability increases, is it even a
reasonable idea that we can find social connections?
Is the
effort worth finding social connections after we have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis?
The answer
is -- Yes.
It
is not only worth, after we have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis to
go to whatever efforts we need to for us to be able to find ms support or make new social
connections with the world around us -- it is vital for
us to find a way for us to maintain or even forge new social connections with
other people around us.
For us to
at least to survive or possibly even thrive, while we are going through all of the
ups and downs that Multiple Sclerosis has inflicted on our bodies and
has brought into our lives, we definitely have to find a way to make social
connections -- with both those that have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and
those that have not.
We need to
do this for several reasons.
=> We
need to do this for ourselves.
If we are
to survive the really tough days that MS can
bring into our lives, we need to know that there are others in our lives that
appreciate us being in their lives, in spite of how mild to severe
our symptoms of MS can become.
=> We
need to find ways to live life again.
I don't
know about you, but after MS entered my life, and turned it totally upside
down, I was still me to some degree for a period of time, in spite of how sick
I really was at the time. I was a very sociable person before Multiple Sclerosis entered
my life and at first, I did not let my severe MS symptoms keep
me from finding ways for me to interact with and be around other people any way
that I could.
But, after a period of time, I actually became much sicker,
after my immune system was weakened, because of Multiple Sclorosis.
After this happened, is when it became so much more difficult for
me to
function enough for me to be able to leave the house for me to spend
time being
around other people. I have found, that at least for me, that finding
ways to connect with other people socially, is my lifeline.
Without other people being involved in my life, some days I just
don't feel like I'm going to survive through all of what I have been
through and am still going through, off and on, because of the effects
of Multiple Sclerosis on my health.
=> To
relieve stress on our systems, for our peace of mind
When those
of us with MS stress out over
things in our lives, this just adds to making our symptoms worse.
Our over reactions to stress can actually set up our systems
for a ms exacerbation or ms relapse to occur
MS
research is revealing so much more about how our over reactions to
stress, for those of us with MS, can actually stimulate the
demyelination of our spinal cords and maybe even our brains, which can
result in relapses or exacerbations of our symptoms of MS.
Finding
ways to reduce stress helps to calm down our over reactive nervous systems,
which often is a result of MS.
Reducing how stressed out we feel can actually help the body and
finding ways to relax and rest can actually stimulate stem cells to be
produced in our bodies. This is a way for our bodies to start to
repair the damage to the myelin sheath and to the Blood Brain Barrier
that surrounds and protects the brain.
This
is good news. This means that if we can find a way to reduce ms
stress and ms insomnia, we can help our bodies to repair itself and go
into remission or to reverse some of the previous damage that Multiple
Sclerosis has already caused to our systems. Stressing out adds
to how sick we feel and possibly to how disabled we can become.
=>
To prevent us from becoming discouraged and depressed.
Being
discouraged or even depressed really takes away from the energy that our bodies
need to be able to recover, repair or even replenish the systems of the body
that have been attacked and/or damaged by MultipleSclerosis.
If we can find a way to work with our bodies and give them what
we need then we have a good chance that our bodies can start to heal
from the damage that M S has caused to our systems. After all,
our bodies do start to heal some from the damage that Multiple
Sclerosis causes to the myelin sheath each time that we do recover some
from our more severe MS symptoms. This is seen as we have periods
of time where we appear to go into remission or have a plateau that
occurs in how severe our symptoms of MS can become at times.
When we
become very emotional or upset so much of the time after we are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, this
places large amounts of stress on our bodies. In most cases of MS, the
central nervous system becomes very over reactive to most stimulation. Stress
just adds to the over stimulation of the nervous system causing our symptoms of MS to become
even worse or to set us up for ms relapses or ms exacerbations.
=>
To help us not to give up.
Our
mind set makes all of the difference when we are battling with Multiple Scerosis. When
we decide to give up partially or totally, our bodies listen to this
and
respond by not fighting back against infections to the extent that they
actually have in the past. Our bodies have to keep fighting
againse so many things that can assault our bodies from the inside or
from the outside that MS can
cause.
We need ms
support to keep ourselves from getting to the point where we can give up
totally. This will help us to free up the energies that would be drained
from our bodies by any of the range of emotions that can result with Multiple Schlerosis. Our
bodies
need to be able to relax, de-stress and heal itself. This is how
our bodies do start to produce its own stem cells to start repairing
the myeln sheath damage that happed previously. But if we
are allowing ourselves to be upset all of the time, this takes away the energy
that our bodies need to heal.
Because
there are many ways to connect with other people because of the Internet, this
gives us so many ways and reasons as to why we should go to the effort to find
ways to connect with other people. Even if we can not physically go
to where other people are, like if your case of Multiple Sclerosis is severe
enough that you are unable to walk and are in a wheelchair, there are still
options for us to keep from becoming discouraged and depressed.
We need
the ms support or social interactions, however we can develop them for us to keep our sanity,
for our peace of mind and to help keep our immune systems strong. It has
been found that ms support and social interactions can make all the difference
in us being able to find ways that are more effective for reducing the Multiple Sclerosis symptoms.
