Philosophy

As a teen, I had a poster in my room with that saying on it. Little did I know that it was preparing me for this stage in my life.

Without the assistance of Modern Medical Science, there is nothing I can do to change the fact that I have CFS. They have to come up with something to treat the virus – all the positive thinking in the world is not going to make it go away. So, I have to have the serenity to accept that that is something that I cannot change; I’m going to feel this way for a long time, and I have to rely on someone else to do the things that will change that.

But there are things that I can change.

I have the courage to write letters and e-mails to legislators who can create funding for proper research and mandate physician education so that no one else ever deteriorates because their doctor is so uninformed that he thinks CFS is just another name for depression. I have the courage to attach my real name to letters to the editor published around the world, educating the general public that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is not a joking matter. I have the courage to run this blog and an online support group to educate as many people as I can. I have the courage to order my Christmas cards from CFIDS.org and enclose a request for research donations with them.

And I have the wisdom to know that there are some people out there who will not change their minds about CFS, no matter how many research studies I post in this blog proving biological underpinnings. They’ll stubbornly cling to their notion that I’m lazy and/or crazy even after the whole rest of the medical community accepts that this really was caused by a nasty virus and not by some personality flaw.