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Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) - Introduce yourself and meet others
Autoimmune Diseases | Last Active: Sep 24 3:33pm | Replies (878)Comment receiving replies
For most of my life I was able to go on without any recognition and support. I was basically searching in art without any discouragement that it seemed no one was interested in what I was discovering. My high school English teacher encouraged me to write poems, and that was enough to go on writing over a thousand poems over 60 years with no real interest in publishing anything. What happened later was that a group of writers in St. John's, Newfoundland wanted to produce an anthology of poetry from the province and wanted to have representation from Labrador. They contacted me somehow and asked me to send some poems for their consideration. I did, and there was one poem that they rewrote as if I was a Hippie, that I was to agree with, if not, it wouldn't be included. I loved being a father and a school teacher, and had no desire to be an insatiable Hippie. I refused, and the poem never appeared. Years after that I never even considered trying to publish any poems. I bring this up because where before I would just forge ahead with my painting and poetry, totally indifferent to any support or interest. Now with R A, I just can't do that. My life seems in every way a rejection. I am trying to adjust my painting with my shaky hands to a more impressionistic style.
Just how do we face this kind of reaction to R A? They say R A is linked to anxiety and depression. I wonder if R A produces depression and anxiety or anxiety and depression produce R A.
Replies to "For most of my life I was able to go on without any recognition and support...."
@spruceriver That’s a very interesting question you posed. Which came first, RA or anxiety and depression? I certainly don’t know the answer! Autoimmune diseases can certainly cause real ups and downs in moods, can’t they? You have a few days where everything goes well and you think, “I’ve got this! I’m getting better!” Then, it’s back to having a bad day and depression sets in again. Maybe you could do a little research on anxiety, depression and RA? Do you think that would interest you?
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Year ago my cousin who was a very successful professional artist sent me a book on the causes of illnesses. In the book it said arthritis was produced by a frustrated will. Actually now, seeing what is going on in the world, I have nothing in my own life to feel frustrated about. I simply can't relate to the times I am living in. I always took my refuge in nature, and now it is being destroyed. Withstanding my own happy adventures in poetry and painting, maybe though I am mentally and physically frustrated. Maybe R A is above all a kind of frustration.
I am hesitate now to go canoeing on the calm waterways in a forested area nearby. Tall trees along the waterways make it very safe. Maybe we aren't that aware of what we truly fear. Is this an aspect of a frustrated will? I did fall in the water and ruined my phone. Now I have a waterproof case. I am wondering with R A, how I am actually, mind and body, reacting to things. Something suddenly falls, and I jump. Is this fear? Is R A changing my normal reaction to things?
I still am convinced that many drugs for depression and anxiety do more damage to the natural way we react to things. I read on the Mayo website, how someone was saying they had been spending over three years trying to get off of Zoloft. Somewhere else I read how this woman tried Zoloft with some pills she found in her father's medicine chest. It took her years to get off Zoloft by taking a razor blade and every day taking one more slice off the pill. It seems to me jumping over a sudden mishap is not very significant in comparison. I think we should consider not taking ourselves so seriously. So we jump when something falls. So what. We aren't teenagers bouncing off the walls. We just recognize R A is also a big question mark. So my eyesight is getting much worse, well, I should try to listen more carefully to music or sounds in nature. I think a characteristic of R A is that it is very fickle. In that may be a solution. ( to be continued)