Koala

I don't think that anyone faults you. It's difficult without inflection or facial/body language or inflection.

This disease and/or its mimickers can be a real trial and we're all going through the sx in some way or another. It's easy to take one thing one way when someone meant it another.

ITA that coping skills are needed. Living on a roller coaster isn't easy. It's not fun knowing how you're going to feel (or not feel) from one minute to the next. But you do get used to it. Even after having 5 years of fun with this I get angry sometimes. I rail at the world, at God, at my body. And then I let it go. Because I know that I'm strong enough to handle this. Doesn't mean that I like it. I don't view myself as a martyr, but I do want to carry the "burden" of being "sick" as best as I can--without letting it define ME as a person.

Knowing I'm not crazy, knowing others go through the same or similar things helps a lot. And sometimes people CAN come down with something just because they've read it--it happens to some med students--they "live" the diseases they're reading about. that's ok. That doesn't mean we can't share. It doesn't mean we don't find comfort in knowing someone else can identify with what we have felt ourselves and maybe others have discounted.

For example, I remember when my neuro kept talking about clinical correlation. Geez, I got sick of those words. There was NO WAY he was ever going to get clinical correlation of my tongue tip vibrating. You couldn't see it! You couldn't FEEL it. It wouldn't have failed a neurological test. But it was there. It was as real as my hand in front of my face. I remember posting on another forum and someone came back and said they had the same thing. I felt SO relieved that I wasn't crazy. Clinical correlation be damned! I was vindicated.

And so it goes. newbies, limbolanders, diagnosed, old timers..... we're all in the soup together. It's an awfully bad tasting soup, but we're making the best of it.

And the best thing? We're doing it together.