Thanks for sharing.

I've had Chronic fatigue syndrome for ten years now and know exactly what you mean with going shopping for another syndrome. I was diagnosed in 2007 with Adrenal fatigue, Malaria, Bilharzia, Tickbite fever, a couple types of chronic lung infection from living close to a petrol refinery and extra bonus points ilness- Endometriosis. Doctors keep telling me I'm depressed. I think I am, but as a symptom of everything else, not as a root cause.

It apparently takes 10 years to get over adrenal fatigue. It should be better by now. It's better in some ways and worse in others. If I get too tired while we're in the shops I have to hang onto the shopping cart to use it as a walker because my body siezes up. ' When you're 30 going on 80..." Fun times. I am a Walkman battery. But like the rechargable batteries that only lasted 2 hours and then the tape started playing slowly until it became a low drawn out mumble.

I have had unexplained stomach pain and lost some weight so went for some scopes last week. Visuals show everything is fine. Biopsies show everything is fine. I'm always half dying and tests are always fine!! The diagnosis was IBS. The thinking being my head and gut aren't communicating properly.
Gut- there's something wrong.
Head- We must react!
Gut- Over reacts
If it doesn't get better I would have to go onto a low dose of Prozac to disrupt the signals. Not keen on that.

Anyway, What I was trying to get to in my brain-fog induced mind splat comment, is that maybe sometimes we need to make a new kind of 'normal' for ourselves. Maybe I will get better, maybe not. But this might be my new normal. I don't get to have the kids and the job and the neat house because after a day of being out I need another day to recover. I don't get to travel overseas because the flights are more than I can cope with, but I live in a beautiful part of the country where most holiday spots are a couple hours driving away.

We're old enough now to find and make our own new normal.

That being said there is a huge gap in our education on how to deal with our emotional issues before they become illnesses and therapy-needing-drug-dependent issues. How should we cope with loss? Are we giving ourselves time to grieve? Do we know the importance of letting an emotion just be... acknowledging it.. and then letting it go?
Do we take a moment to celebrate goals that have been achieved?
Maybe we need to be thankful of the little moments. 'Our lives are made in these small hours, these little wonders, these twists and turns of fate'