Thank you tkrik. I said the same thing to my b/f, but couldn't figure out a way to word it so that it wouldn't come across as offensive.

When I first started visiting the forums, one of the ladies said out loud that "MS is a wanna' be disease". I found that accusation very repugnant . . . but the more I stayed on the forums, the more I realized there is some merit to this line of thinking.

I really don't think people WANT MS, they just want a dx of some sort to validate what they are experiencing. The mind can play wicked tricks on the body though, and the more some people learn, the more they seem to identify with our symptoms. This is especially true of MS, I think, because our symptoms are so broad and bizarre.

One of my closest MS friends won't even visit the MS forums because she says she ends up "imagining" all these symptoms, and then obsessing on them.

The other concern, as you've touched on, is that people can get so hung up on a MS dx that they don't focus on what the problem might really be. I know one lady, bless her, that has recently found out she has ALS, not MS. I've seen this type of situation happen over and over again, where people are too focused on their health problems being related to MS, and in fact it is something else entirely.

These specialists went to school a LONG time, and they know EXACTLY what to look for. In fact, it may be that they suspect that someone has MS too, but most of them are astute enough to know when is the right time to tell us, and/or when is NOT a good time either. (My doctor knew I preferred denial, and played that game until he just couldn't any more. )

Testing, TIME and PATIENCE usually expose the facts.

I agree that writing our symptoms out in detail probably isn't a particularly good idea. Those of us who have the MS don't often need any assurances that it is MS causing it, and if we aren't sure, we can ask specific questions to get that information.

Cherie