Beat Lupus

Please share your stories with us.  This is a place for you to feel welcome to share your thoughts, experiences, and motivation, so that others can benefit from your writing.  Please email your stories to rmizuno@comcast.net.

 

Anita used therapy and physical exercise to promote her state of wellness to one of energy and recovery:

 

Anita’s Story:

Anita: 

              “I have lupus. I have had lupus for many years and have experienced many of the symptoms associated with it.  I have always tried to put a positive spin of living a healthy life despite the, at times, debilitating problems I have experienced. Following is the story of one such symptom and how I managed to live with it and move on.”

 

Depressed. Depression. Sadness. Often used words to describe a condition in which you feel major fatigue, lack of hunger or very hungry all the time, lack of interest in friends, in family, in the world around you. All you want to do is lie in bed or on the sofa, sometimes crying, not answering the phone, and cut yourself off from the outside world.

How does this happen?  In my case, it usually starts with a flare that gets me down. It could be a flu-like illness, or a lupus flare that has my  joints screaming at me.  Or, I just do one too many long days of sightseeing while on vacation.  It could happen when I don’t listen to my body telling me to slow down. “I feel fine”, I think, “I can do one more thing”, but really, I can’t. The next day I can’t crawl out of bed. The day after I can make it to the sofa. Not much improvement. Major fatigue is grabbing hold of me and settling in.

Soon my friends are calling, but I let voice mail pick up and don’t return the calls. Then my family gets the same treatment. My husband says, “Let’s go out to dinner.” I respond with, “I’m not hungry.’”

This is not good. I know it. Everyone I love knows it. But how do I get out from under? How do I return to my usual sunny self and throw off the burden of not feeling well and not having the energy to change that.

There is a difference between depression and sadness. Sadness is a mild condition that occurs when a trigger makes you feel down. A sad movie. The loss of a pet. A trip having to be cancelled because you are sick. The holidays are over and you miss your loved ones who have gone home. Or a variety of other situations that take over and make you sad. This usually is short lived. You get over it when something good takes its place.

But depression is usually a medical condition requiring treatment from a health professional. It takes over and grabs hold and you cannot usually do much about it by yourself. Clinical depression, as it is called, often is a component of having a chronic illness like lupus. Many more people who have chronic illnesses are depressed than are those not having chronic illnesses.

Treatment can consist of medication, therapy, or both. But you have to cooperate. It’s much easier to “check out” of the world than to fight with the tools you have and use the medical professionals who are there to help you.

So what did I do? First I sat in my recliner chair all day watching TV or snoozing, rarely reading. After weeks and weeks of that, I realized that I couldn’t go on like that. Funny, I wasn’t bored. You’d think I would be , but when you are depressed you go into a hibernative state that precludes boredom. I went to my doctor and told him how I was feeling. He sent me to a psychologist who helped me immensely. We talked about how I got into this state and what I needed to do to get out of it. We met for about 4 months – first weekly, and then every other week. I also took a mild anti-depressant that helped with the pain of lupus. My doc, my therapist, and the drug combined to give me the push that I needed to get going again.

Next, physical therapy. This helped me to use my muscles again and get me on an exercise program. I started walking again too.

And finally, I began to call my friends. I made lunch dates. I went out to dinner with my husband and friends. I called my grandchildren more. All in all, I re-entered the world. You know, it’s interesting that I don’t think anyone really noticed. Everyone is so busy with their own lives that they don’t make the time. A word of advice – if you have a friend who seems to be suffering from depressing, don’t give up on her. Keep calling. Eventually it will pay off. If you care enough. And I know that you do.

 

Anita is a columnist for the Living Well Newsletter distributed by the Lupus Foundation of Colorado.  See www.lupuscolorado.org and “newsletter” to read Anita’s articles.  Anita’s book, which talks about the intimate doctor/patient relationship, is due out this summer.  Please stay tuned.