The Keys to Recovery

Julie Holiday (aka @MECFSSelfHelpGuru ) shared a great post on Prohealth recently about the Keys to Recovery. In sharing stories of those who have recovered she’s found a few simple ways these stories have overlapped. I go back and forth over whether I’m willing to say I’m “recovered” from Fibromyalgia. I’ve addressed that previously. Most of the time I do feel like I’ve recovered though and I can honestly say I attribute it completely to the first thing that Julie listed.

1. Commitment to doing whatever it takes

One common denominator is that most of the people who have recovered have exhibited an incredible commitment to doing whatever it takes to recover.

 

There are days now were I don’t have that commitment and I can feel the difference. It’s frustrating to see my symptoms morph. To find that I can’t eat the healthy way I’d like to eat because there’s a new batch of GI symptoms that come up because of eating healthy. Sometimes it feels like nothing works, but that doesn’t mean I quit trying. I don’t. I’m still willing to do anything and I continue to look for the answer.

As I said I’ve been having a new host of GI issues lately that are aggravated by eating healthy (fiber hates me, even my juice bloats me). So, I’ve been going round-robin with my GI doc trying to find a good solution and so far nothing is taking. I’m ready to go back to square one with or without his help. What is square one? Elimination diet. I think it’s that time again. I’m just not sure what it’s going to look like this time and that’s the one thing holding me back. Despite the fact that even juice bloats me I’m considering doing another juice cleanse just to see it if would help. The other alternative is a nutritionist. That’s one direction I’ve not gone before, so why not give it a try – in the name of trying anything. I plan to ask my GI doc for a referral at my next visit. I’m hoping that my insurance might cover it if I get a referral, but I’m at a point where I’m willing to give it a try even without help from the insurance.

Why am I willing to keep pushing for an answer? Because of the second thing on Julie’s list – I believe that recovery is possible. I believe that I can feel better. It helps that I have felt better than I currently do. I’m getting by with where I am but I’m not willing to settle for getting by, for being constantly bloated, for stomach aches, and all the other GI fun.

There are plenty of reasons why not to do things. We can always come up with those, and usually those “reasons” are really nothing more than excuses. I look through her list of things that prevent recovery and every one of them is within our control, or it’s just an excuse we are using. The one that popped out to me was “not being well enough to take the first steps”. I’ll give you that all of us at some point have been so sick that we can’t even think. But, the second you can think you should be thinking about what it’s going to take to recover and be willing to take those steps, no matter what.