2012

People with invisible illnesses have it hard at New Year's time.

There's so! Much! Pressure!

Get to the gym! Gotta lose weight!  Gotta save money (find room in the budget? Where?!)  Gotta deprive myself to fit society's little peg hole for me!

I say no.

For people with invisible illnesses,  the challenges don't start on January 1. They're there all year long. And so are the things that make them more difficult.  So a few years ago,  I gave myself permission to stop making New Year's Resolutions that were just going to be ones I'd eventually fail at, and thus have more reason to sink into self loathing and depression when I did.   I decided my New Year's Resolutions would be all ones I'd have no trouble keeping, and that I'd enjoy keeping.

The ones that have made the list so far are above.

And if you're not a person with an invisible illness?

Pay close attention to

#2:  Be an appreciator, not a hater.  Think about your words before you speak them and make sure the person you're saying them to will hear them the way you intend them.  If that doesn't matter to you, then you're not really in it to help them.

#4:  It's nice that you want to help, but between us and the doctor, we invisible illness people pretty much know what works.  More than likely if you saw it on the internet, we saw it too, took it to the doctor, and determined whether or not it'll help.   Thanks for the thought.


 #8:  Stress usually makes invisible illnesses such as (but not limited to) fibromyalgia, OCD, depression, social anxiety , etc.  worse.  The holidays are a stressful time of year for a myriad of reasons.  If you see your loved one starting to stress -- help them remember they don't have to stress.  That's not the point of the holiday season.

May 2012 be a better year for all of us.  

May we all grow bigger hearts and more enlightened spirits.