Poor me. No one has it as bad as I do. I have the worst luck. Poor poor me. No one understands how bad I have it. How could they? I have it so much worse!

Do you ever catch yourself on that train to victimville? It's a long, lonely ride, my friends. Being a victim and living in that lonely town of I have it the worst can really mess with our minds and our bodies.

First of all, lots of people have lots of bad things, right? It's apples and oranges. We can't compare our pain to someone else's. My level 7 might be someone else's 10. It's like comparing heartbreaks. We can commiserate, but we really can't compare.

So, how do we let people know what's going on without acting like a victim all the time? There are so many ways. I try educating my family on my conditions and what symptoms and pain I regularly have. They have visual cues. I don't need to say a lot about it, so when I do they know it's serious.

I think it all reverts back to educating ourselves no matter what our condition. Taking proper care requires knowledge, not hearsay and guess work. When we're scared we feel trapped by our conditions, victimized by fate. Fear is always lessened by knowing what is happening to our bodies, in our lives, whatever the situation.

We have choices. We can take the train to victimville, fight our pain like a demon enemy (and lose) and be miserable like we knew we would be. Or, we can learn to understand the source of any pain and deal with it, learning to roll with what life hands us.

A lot of people understand me, surprisingly :) It's certainly better here, but there's a train pulling up for victimville if you're not ready to be understood.

We'll listen, when you're ready.

peace and love,

sunee