Gabes,
As always, you're very perceptive, and right on target. I totally agree with your observations. Kudos to the members in your post, and kudos to you for posting this topic.
Heady wrote:Everyone here was encouraging & helpful with their suggestions and those are the things I needed to hear in my moments of desperation. I only know what I've experienced and hope that my advice to a newbie will give them hope for some degree of normalcy in their chaotic MCjourney.
You have described the type of healing environment that we were hoping to achieve, when we initially set up this site almost 9 years ago. To me, it seems so discouraging to see that a disproportionate percentage of the discussions posted on so many support forums are so predominantly depressing and discouraging, that I'm kind of surprised that anyone would choose to spend much time there.
Most of us are well aware of the powers of positive thinking, and there is even medical research to show that attitude plays a big role in the recovery rates of people who have traumatic events imposed upon their lives. For many, believing that recovery is impossible, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By contrast, people who are in those same circumstances, but who are confident that they will recover, have a much higher rate of successful recovery. Surrounding oneself with upbeat, positive-thinking people, inevitably leads to better outcomes not only in health issues, but in virtually every aspect of life. IMO, one of the most important realizations we can make is to recognize that
Success is Contagious.
Of course, nothing promotes success like successful results, so what we are doing here has to work, otherwise it would be nothing more than worthless hype. But we are very fortunate that we have an environment that's supported by successful outcomes. That makes it much easier to maintain a positive attitude, because obviously a positive attitude is justified. So the more we are able to encourage a positive attitude among others, the higher their success rate. That's an awesome benefit, and it's virtually free — all it takes is a little of our time. (Or course, I realize that time may be the most precious commodity of all, since the clock ticks our time away 24x7, but what better use could we possibly make of at least some of the time that we have available?)
Anyway, the point is that as Gabes has so eloquently pointed out, all of us here sincerely appreciate the supportive and informative posts that all of you have written. It clearly illustrates the main reason for the existence of this discussion board in the first place — we're all here to learn from each other, how to control this disease, and how to improve our quality of life. IOW, we're all here to help each other get our life back.
Tex
