Ali,

That's quite an ordeal you went through, both with the RSD and with your family. Please stay strong throughout all of this!

I guess only us RSD patients can truly understand what RSD is and what it's like. Only true support can come from other patients and people that love us no matter what. No one else can even begin to imagine or understand and you can't force them to do so. There are people who support us no matter what, and OTOH there are those who won't even begin to make an effort to understand.

There are even people who try and harass us because we have RSD. That happened to me.

I once got this absolutely rude and insensitive comment from a complete stranger, saying that his aunt had Cancer for God's sakes, you know the big C (as if other diseases didn't matter), and that *she* could still do things (non-terminal) and that *she* traveled half across the world, so what was *I* complaining about! It didn't get what the comment was all about, I only know that it was uncalled for and extremely rude. Then later, this person apparently discovered that RSD pain is far worse than non-terminal cancer pain. All of a sudden it was different. All of a sudden, I deserved understanding and comfort. Luckily, you can ignore complete strangers. Ever since I went public with my RSD, with my website and everything, it's like the whole world needs to judge. What I'm trying to say is, there are always these kinds of people, people of ill will who try and hurt you no matter what. They'll find an excuse every time, if it's not this, it's going to be something else. They can be strangers, they can be family, they can be whomever...

Don't let them get to you.

I always give people who want to know more about RSD the usual RSD sites on the net, as well as directions to all the forums.