The only people that understand what we are going through are the people that have gone/are going through this. I have a couple of friends that are former/active military and one of them blew up on an IED in a humvee. He went through hell with his injuries on top of PCS.

He "gets" me whenever I describe a symptom to him without me even completing a sentence. He was in special forces and all those guys are obviously super macho types. He had a very hard time explaining why he couldn't do certain things after his blast injury and was made fun of on many occasions by his superiors and fellow soldiers.

But honestly, if I haven't gone through PCS, I would never understand it. I always thought that you can push through anything mentally and physically. Never understood why people behave a certain way being on some of the heavier medications, or why you can't just "lighten up" and push through anxiety/depression.

My family/friends still don't get it even after several years have passed now. I've heard everything from "you're just allergic to work" to being asked to "try and be a normal person for at least a day" for a wedding or a birthday outing.

Sometimes it's kind of a catch 22 - I would go and suffer through someone's birthday at a loud restaurant and then people would assume my condition is much better now and be upset when I decline an invitation to a party or other event.

Same goes for pretending to look normal, people assume you're fine and are upset when you refuse to do something.

Just like Bud said, I have a much better understanding and compassion for people with chronic diseases, not just PCS.

I don't really blame people for not understanding, it's human nature. No matter how many times a woman will tell me how horrible it is to give birth, I will never understand it, same with these chronic conditions.

You made a lot of good points, My response to the "you just don't want to work" is just putting it in perspective for them. I remind them how much I liked my job and how many hours I put in, and most of the time it sets in for them that if I was healthy I would be working!

The worst is when you just plow through an event or party just to be there, and you do a really good job of hiding how you are really feeling. No one sees you the next two days, hardly able to do anything. I recently when to a graduation party, and had to explain to some people I had not seen since high school what was going on. They simply said, "that it was seven months ago, how could it still be affecting you?"

I think what tops my list was when someone in my family suggested that I shouldn't be dating someone, because if I could handle having a girlfriend than I could be in school or working. I thought to myself, God forbid I could actually have someone to help me get through this who isn't judgmental.

Isn't PCS just one big catch 22? Ha

I do the same when asked about work. I tell them how much I loved my job. I loved my day job because I loved the people and it was a constant learning process, and I loved Mortgage brokering, which I did as well, because I love helping people. ...

Anyways, when I talk about how much I loved it, people seem to understand better. I Wish PCS wasn't in my life, but like most people, I didn't understand concussions and didn't even know PCSs existed. I wouldn't have understood if I had known someone going through it.

I'm thankful that I Do understand better now, and can help someone who is going through it, just be understanding. That was the hardest part for me was no one understanding, and not even being able to explain it myself.

The "you look great" video series did the job of explaining For me, thank goodness. I had my mother watch it, and suddenly she was different and more understanding. I felt like I could talk to her again.


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Disclaimer...lol....I never actually Stopped talking to my mother. Ha


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The difference was, before the video series, you could talk TO your mother. Now, you can talk WITH her because she understands the conversation. Big difference. Good for you.