Dreaming Stress

Stress is a huge part of what makes autoimmune diseases flare. I love how everytime I read something on controlling autoimmune arthritis, it tends to say something along the lines of 'learn to control stress.' I feel as if that should be more of an instruction for bosses, teachers, and anyone else who seems to cause more stress in our lives. It might be up to us how we deal with it, but I can only do so much. We always say our health should come before anything else, and though it should, it won't always. At least for me.

Maybe I'm burning myself out, but I've been pushing past a lot of pain and fatigue to get work and projects done. I'm a young person: I'm working to pursue my dreams. Maybe it's my age, but achieving dreams triumphs a lot right now. My rooms a mess, my Enbrel is off schedule by a day (not a big deal: I don't let that become a problem), I'm tired beyond belief and sore. Right now, so much is taking my priority. It will for a few weeks more, so please forgive the lack of blog posts. Right now I'm trying for two a week but it might not happen. When this is all over with, I'm probably going to be in a tired, painful state whilst I recover. I'm not going to regret it though, because I know I'll recover from the pain but I will never forgive myself for not working hard right now.

Stress? It make arthritis worse. The best thing to do is control. Don't do as I do: please control your stress. And if you find a miracle way to take away stress, please let me know! However, I have found a few things that tend to help a lot:

1. Always take time for you. I give myself an hour in the evenings. I like to take log hot showers to relax myself, and then kind of zone out whilst watching television. The nights I don't do that I feel worse the next day.
2. Learn what stresses you. Even when it's one thing stressing you out, it may feel like everything is a source of stress. Although it won't take the stres away, you can feel more incontrol being able to separate stress from other things.
3. Don't put more stress on you than you need. Don't sign yourself up for extra projects, accept help if you need it and just put away the uncomfortable othes and shoes- you can look dressed up and uncomfortable when you're not under more strain!
4. Never neglect your treatments. I don't advise you to push yourself but if you do, it's more important than ever to follow through with medicines and treatments. Without them thugs could be much worse.
5. Don't neglect the people around you. Let them know your under stress and are having a rough time. You shouldn't have to lose your relationships. I learned this the hard way.

It gets better eventually, just keep holding on.