EDS awareness month- Taking a break from chronic life

So It's been a while since a post appeared on this blog. I've been distancing myself from thinking about EDS and everything that comes with it lately.

I've been having a lot of appointments about symptoms that may or may not be related, so I can't completely forget about it.

As it's EDS awareness month I really wanted to write about stress. Being chronically ill, as this blog has covered many times, comes with enormous amounts of stress. My stress reached a scarily high level recently, spurred on by worrying about my health and waiting for results and doctors to reassure me. Chronic pain is basically impossible to have without also having a lot of stress. The combination of everything you have to deal with is a perfect storm of mental unrest.

Something I feel has become important to me and that I feel people should try if they can, is creating some distance. It's not that easy for everyone, because my symptoms are much milder than a lot of others, but it can be done. I started by hiding groups I had joined on Facebook, and not opening links about sad stories of death and patients suffering or how the new government will impact healthcare. I just couldn't read anymore. I also stopped talking about it. Just for a week, I didn't mention it to anyone at all. I still have pains and aches and massive clouds of brain fog that I would usually moan about but I decided to try and remove myself from being a person with EDS.

It worked. I felt calmer, less worried, less scared and started sleeping a little better. I also stopped googling things related to EDS and checking Facebook groups and Twitter for symptoms that sounded similar to mine.

My geneticist mentioned that a lot of people with EDS become fixated on finding people similar and with that comes more anxiety and more concern about symptoms you might not even have yet. I told her all about this blog and how much I had gained from it, and also about how I felt I was too wrapped up in it.

Her advice of having a short break was completely ignored at first. I basically just continued as I was and carried on getting more and more worked up. I almost cancelled hospital appointments in fear of more bad news and that's when I decided it was time.

'Removing yourself' from something that pretty much runs your life is no easy task, but even if you can do it for a day, it's so refreshing. Hiding social media groups or not contributing to awareness for one week doesn't make you a bad person. Everyone needs a break sometimes. We have breaks from work and breaks from people, so since chronic illness is a full time burden, surely we're entitled to a break of sorts from that too?

6 changes to make 2015 healthier

Living with illness or not, everyone knows it's important to make some effort towards being healthy. Those who have experience of living with a condition  will also be aware that having good health and being in good shape can improve your outlook. Exercising much more in 2014 made a difference to my hypermobility, so in 2015 I want to continue with the positive changes. I spent ages on Sunday trawling through websites and blogs to look for some inspiration of things I can put into action, and these are my chosen 6:

1) Drinking a mug of warm water and lemon in the morning

For a long time my first drink every morning was coffee, which is not good and I have tried really hard to cut the habit out. I've heard a lot before about trying warm water first thing. It apparently helps with digestion, can be a natural way to help alleviate pain, can help with constipation and weight loss. The lemon is a good source of vitamin C, good in these winter months when there are germs a-plenty, and is also a natural anti-bacterial product. My hairdresser also swears it does wonders for your skin, which is always a big advantage.

2) Using a health app

I rarely put my iPhone down and I know I'm not alone in that. Health apps are being used more and more and I get lots of emails at work advertising new ones. They cover literally everything, but a good general one that monitors your intake of food and drink and exercise is a good place to start if you have nothing really specific to target. My Fitness Pal has long been a favourite of mine. I used it loads when I was a student and wanted to stop neglecting my diet. It basically tracks what you eat and drink against how active you are and tells you what you should be aiming for each day. It's great for weight loss if you want to slim down, but you can also use it to just make sure you aren't over or under-indulging and even to gain weight if you need to. It's free to download and really user-friendly.

3) Eating fruit before anything else

I've always been fairly good at fitting in fruit and veg in my adult life. What I do find though is that I cram it all in during the afternoon or evenings, meaning I am less likely to get the recommended 5 a day (or 7, depending on if you can handle that much!) which I would like achieve. Eating a piece of fruit first thing is actually pretty easy, especially something easy like a banana or apple. Including it in your breakfast helps too, but if you are busy and in a rush, grabbing something out of the fruit bowl is ideal.

4) Using fresh ingredients instead of jars/packets

This would depend a lot on how you feel about cooking and how much time you have. There are lots of great recipes out there for class dishes like spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carne and curries that can be made fresh with spices and vegetables, rather than using shop-bought jars and packets. It's actually not that difficult either and you can alter things to be more to your taste. Once you have a good stock of spices in your kitchen, you don't even need to buy much each time you make a meal. Simply scratch is a really nice site that has a lot of recipes on, if you are looking for a place to start. I also want my weekly food shop to look like this more often:

5) Alcohol swapping

Okay, so if you love wine, this is a hard one. I LOVE wine, it's a complete guilty pleasure and I could could easily have a glass almost every day, which I don't, but still. It's also up there with the most fattening of all the beverages, which is sad. I'm going to attempt to switch from drinking wine to trying spirits with soda/tonic or low fat soft drinks. This may or may not go well. A couple of friends have mentioned in the past how much this has helped them lost them weight along the way, which isn't my goal, but it seems a bit healthier. Well, as healthy as it can be where alcohol is concerned. There is no way red wine can completely be banished though. No way,


6) Do more things I enjoy

Mental health is just as important as physical. Being happier overall is far more likely to make me succeed in the above, because when I am happier, I am more motivated in general. I ended last year stressed, tired, overworked and a bit fed up, which had a negative impact on my general well being. I'm going to attempt to do at least one really fun, enjoyable thing a week, even if it's something silly like watching Bridesmaids with my housemate for the 393485th time. Smiling is good for you, laughing is good for you, so it's time to do more.

I'm not looking at these as strict resolutions, because they won't all last or work out, but it's good to have things to aim for. Happy, healthy 2015!