Patients with serious illness appear to adapt well

[Banazir]

Patients with Serious Illness Appear to Adapt Well
Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:38 PM GMT

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Most people who live with serious disability or illness, such as kidney failure, appear to adapt well and maintain a healthy outlook on life, new research reports.

This trend may be surprising to some -- the report also found that people without serious illnesses tended to underestimate the level of happiness in these patients.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-02-11T213737Z_01_B549006_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-DISABILITY-HAPPINESS-DC.XML

[lala_rawraw]

1. yep, i agree n/t

[Warpy]

2. They should have added "as long as their pain is treated."

Untreated or even undertreated pain KILLS through social isolation and finally suicide.

Docs are finally figuring this out. The DEA still needs to catch on.

[applegrove]

3. It would take someone who had never been through 'anything' to think

that going through hell doesn't make you appreciate every moment all the more. AS long as the pain can be treated - humans find happiness in all sorts of lives.

Read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry for more info on lives lived and finding happiness.

[Banazir]

4. Exactly.

It always surprises me when I realize that people think my life is extremely restricted and dismal, but in most people's estimation it is. I'm a fairly happy person these days but some people think if your mind or body works like ours do then you must be unhappy and just putting a good face on it. Confuses me because I'm happy with this life, and I don't think happiness comes from how many things you can run around frenetically doing all day. I'd be very unhappy if I were doing that, in fact. But some people running around frenetically and actually often less happy than I am insist that ceasing to run around frenetically would make them extremely unhappy, and therefore that it makes me extremely unhappy. This is why I never judge someone else as being unhappy just because they're disabled, and such generalizations still startle me a bit when I see them.

[applegrove]

5. I am not disabled - but I know pain. I think we all have a set point

for happiness and medications help if you haven't been taking care of yourself or got lost.

[Sugarbleus]

8. Good essay... Banazir

You put this quite well. My hubby's hemiplegia upset him when he was first injured but over time, he adapted and became grateful just to be alive.

Then came the years when he was a member of a (non disabled) men's group where the guys would say: 'What an inspiration you are to us'..:eyes: Hubby never could quite grasp why they thought that, deep down.

I've heard him say many, many times..to me and to those friends of his that he was GLAD he's in the condition he's in (for reasons that I won't go into here) but he got his point across to those who stood in amazement.

Today, his friends treat him like they treat each other, no more fawning over him "because of his limitations". Likewise, hubby talks about being happier now than he ever was...........and he is.
...................................................................
That isn't to say that one doesn't get a bit depressed and unhopeful when one's health begins to truly fail. When one thing after another starts going wrong healthwise...This would be true for anyone though. It's not fun to be "sickly" everyday.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Interesting: dialysis patients about as happy as those not on dialysis,

and paraplegics not much less happy than lottery winners. One thing they noted is that healthy people underestimate their happiness (or overestimate their unhappiness, can't recall which way the article phrased it.)

Pain control is essential when you have chronic pain, though, there's no doubt about that. If you have chronic pain and your doctor isn't helping you get it under control, find another doctor.

[REP]

7. Not Like We Have a Choice

I get complimented all the time on my "good attitude." Sometimes I even have to reassure my doctors that my prognosis is not as bleak as it seems ... which is a little weird. I'm not setting out to be a good example or anything so drearily Hallmark, but all whining all the time does is make people avoid you!