Very bad days still very good life

I wanted to write a post about how one can have very bad days and still have overall a very good life with chronic illness and chronic pain.

We are not destined to be miserable. We do not have to ascribe to the idea that have a chronic illness or chronic pain diminishes our lives or existence. It changes it. And how we function and move in the world but it doesn’t diminish it. It doesn’t have to destroy our value and self-worth.

We are human. We have a full range of emotions. We can in fact be happy in the midst of symptoms and pain.

And we can have very bad days with symptoms and pain. Rest days. Weeks. That greatly impact our ability to function. But this doesn’t equate to a bad life.

Nor does it take away or diminish from our achievements in this life.

Comorbid mental health issues

What can happen is co-morbid mental health struggles. I have depression which does impact how I view my life for sure. That is a struggle that compromises things. My overall life satisfaction, happiness, and self-worth.

Even these struggles do not last forever. Not my entire life. And I know I will get through them. Through the tunnel and out the other end eventually.

Then we have to work through that which bring a great deal of complications to our illness and pain.

What makes a ‘good life’

Overall fulfillment in:

• Material comfort
• Overall Wellbeing
• Meaningful activities/work,
• Relationships (with partners, family, and friends)
• Belonging to a community.

Working on these areas helps us with fulfillment and gives us that sense of living a good life.

1. I have enough to live a simple life and that works for me. So material comfort ends are met. This can be a struggle and when this is financially a risk it leads to a lot of stress. But as for in general, my needs are few.
2. Overall wellbeing is something we work hard on with chronic illnesses. We work hard to help out wellbeing. Sometimes it lags but at least we do many things to help with this.
3. With relationships we can be isolated but that makes us value the ones we have tremendously.
4. Many of us belong to online communities that help us cope.

Nevertheless,

Pain, symptoms, fatigue can vary in intensity enabling us to have different levels of functionality. From tolerable to intolerable. Function to non-functional. It isn’t how other live their lives or how they understand how to live a life. But we live our lives in these lower times, pacing as we go, and rest more in the times when we cannot function as well.

A constant ebb and flow to how we live in the world. Not a bad life. A different life. It can be a difficult life. And we do so many things to maintain this life. When it gets severe it can be exceptionally difficult.

But I resist the idea that I should think this is a bad life because of disability. That disability itself is a bad word. That my life became intrinsically less because of it. And I should be, then, miserable as a result of it. Because we have value and so do our lives.

Now my life, is a very simple little life. With a very simple little ways. But that doesn’t make it bad. Or small. It makes it mine.

Oh, Yeah, Fibromyalgia