From today’s paper:
On Labor Day that year Clark’s sister was able to talk her through an attack, which was brought on by the stress of planning to go away for the weekend. After that, she was able to stop several other attacks by relaxing during stressful times.
“Talk her through an attack”? Maybe it’s a variation of “it’s all in your head”.
*gulp* What a disservice to those with a progressive degenerative disease. Acceptance of disability is difficult enough. This article could make it tougher.
To think that if I had just calmed down and talked it out I wouldn’t have brainstem damage…
I’ll be the first to agree that relaxation and a positive attitude is very beneficial, but it’s not curing my progressive multiple sclerosis.
It’s a lousy article. But I wonder if maybe she isn’t having panic attacks? Some of the symptoms of a panic can be like MS symptoms, except of course they do clear up when you quit panicking. If you had the same types of symptoms from both sources, I see where you might get confused about which were which.
Jen <– fortunate that my panicky symptoms are distinct from my other more persistent neurological issues.
Yes, well, I’m working on my non-defensive helpful letter to the editor. Something like, it’s great that Ms. Clark is exercising and feeling good about having her MS under control, and it might be helpful to know that MS exacerbations are not under a person’s conscious control. Oh, and a majority (but not all) people with MS are adversely affected by getting too warm, so a very warm pool like the Y’s might not be the best place for them.
What do you guys think?
Could you possibly give a brief definition of what an MS attack or demyelinating event is?
I don’t think it’s a bad idea to explain. It may just be coincidence when some episodes remit for her; when I have remissions from spinal and hip inflammation, it doesn’t seem correlated with stress, though at first I thought it was–now I have had enough pain episodes to know otherwise.