Fighting Blues with Green

I didn't really want to write about this issue because it's pretty personal and also, if I don't use my words adequately, I may give off the wrong impression. But here goes...

Well, it seems that there is a perception about me having certain chronic aches and pains (some muscle pains coupled with tiredness otherwise known as fibromyalgia as well as my allergies and subsequent sinus problems) and these being "psychosomatic" or somehow "not real". What gets me mad is that when people dismiss these issues, they not only dismiss my pain and the helplessness I feel about having to live with this, but they dismiss my word as being false.

The problem is that even were these medical problems to be psychological rather than phisiological in origin, they are still real! One thing I simply must point out as well is that there are a large number of valid diseases that used to be classified as psychosomatic or "hysterical" in nature. These include asthma, allergies, false pregnancy, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), Coeliac disease, migranes and peptic ulcers. For those not in the know, ulcers were once thought to be stress-induced (and even if that was the case, which it turns out it wasn't, the person was still having to deal with severe stomach pain and should not have been dismissed) but in reality, ulcers are now known to be caused by the helicobacter pyroli bacteria. (I learned this in beauty school!) It is a bacteria shaped like a helicopter and it attaches to the stomach and causes the ulcers. It has nothing to do with stress! The picture of the busy and overwhelmed man chugging Mylanta every time the boss demanded more output is false. The guy simply had a bacteria he needed to be rid of. (I was tested for the bacteria but was found not to have it but instead found to have GERD.)

Anyway, my point is that even if the fibromyalgia and allergies and sinus problems and whatever else may afflict me (aforementioned GERD or acid reflux disease), I still have these very physical problems to contend with! My body does ache! My vision gets tired, my glands swell, my sinus cavities get raw, my stomach hurts, I do get bloated! Whether a trip to the shrink would get rid of it all or not is simply irrelevant. I can't afford one and even if I could, I have little to no faith in them at all. I have more faith not only in God but in things like vitamins and minerals and other supplements. (Hence the title of the blog- I started taking my Über Greens again, which are a very expensive powdered supplement chock-full of vitamins, minerals, greens, antioxidants and fiber.)

I just want people to realize that it's very harmful and hurtful to treat me as though I am not suffering. No one goes up to a cancer patient and tells them to get over it or that it's in their head. So why is it that when I have a bout with something like a sinus infection (which has been properly diagnosed and treated by a physician) or the aches and tiredness caused by fibromyalgia (the cause of which is in question), I am dismissed as needing therapy? I still can't move!

My problems may stem from a damaged psyche. It could be a result of being very young and in the middle of a war and bein "abandoned" for a couple of months because my mom and dad left for the U.S. first to find jobs then sent for us. It could also be phisiological in that I did get several and very "real" dangerous diseases back then- malaria (twice), measles, and acute bronchitis (like three times). Maybe my immune system suffered. Maybe I'm somehow "weak" in the mind. If so, please be patient and loving not mean and cruel. That's all.