My suggestion to you would be councelling. Imahoteop said it pretty good. What happens is we sometimes tend to push people away ourselves while dealing with RSD.

I have always dealt with depression but when RSD set in, I became so bad that I was suicidal. It has taken 10 years of councelling to get me to where I am now. I still deal with the suicidal issues due to the pain at times and the depression but I have a councellor to call up and talk to. They can be Godsend's to help us understand what we are going through and how to get through it and to go through it with us if you find the right one. It might take looking but you would not be sorry.

Our families do find it hard to understand RSD. I believe it's due to the lack of knowledge about it. If Drs. don't know about it then why would we think our families would unless they studied it right along with us? My daughter is my caregiver. She also takes care of a friend that is in a wheelchair from MS and she knows more about the MS then the RSD. I think because the MS is so much more well known and talked about.

I can only imagine how hard it is for you and being so young. My feeling with friends is that if they are real friends they are there for the long haul. They don't pick the good days to be there for you and not the bad.

Things will get better for you with the RSD in time also. I see so many people that comes a long way with the right care and you will find it.

You will find a lot of support here. Great people. What you also will find though is that you need someone to talk to in person or on the phone to help you get through the worst of it. We become hermits because of the RSD. I am today, I hardly leave my house but my phone rings everyday from friends calling me.

Don't give up. You will see much better days, with RSD it just takes time.

Ada