How to keep a positive attitude

[janet11]

Hi my name is Janet. I am new to the epilepsy thing. How do you maintain a positive attitude when dealing with all the new information and accepting the diagnosis? Thanks

 

[N Sperlo]

I think it is all about a positive lifestyle. I know, I know. It is silly to respond with something that doesn't even sound like an answer.
I work hard and I work a lot, but when I go home, I leave everything behind. The stress stays. I take time to relax and try to meditate when I can. Get enough sleep and take time to have fun. Try to live as normal of a life as you can.
The main this is to just remember that you will never give up and life will go on. Be positive, and think positive. Don't let anyone else get to that. Don't let people piss you off. Brush it off, smile and keep living a positive life.

 

[Zolt]

Hi Janet, welcome to CWE.

First of all, you just need to accept it for what it is and the good part is you are not dead.

Accept it as a challenge, as a hurdle or even a dead weight you lug around with you. Good thing though is life is not over yet.

Second learn all you can about the problem at hand and deal with it the best you and your loves can. No need to deal with it alone, get support.

Third, block out your negative emotions, they just rot you from the inside. Yes, i know easier said then done, but where there is a will there is a way.

And forth, remember you are still not dead and that is what life is about. So enjoy it while you have the most precious gift in the world, Life. If you think ur life is no good, make it better. It sure beats being six feet under.

We are not here forever, only a short time.

iano: op:

 

[Cint]

And to add to what Sperlo & Zolt said, take one day at a time. That is the advice my neuro gave me years ago when I was so overwhelmed. You can only live one day at a time, so take each day and live that one like it was your only day.

And try meditation to block those negative emotions from your mind.

 

[knothing]

How did you deal with the grand mal? How I dealt with that is how I just dealt with the rest of this. I fought to get up (took some time), fought through the recovery( a few days), fought though getting back to my version of normal. I pushed to educate myself and push everyday to be me.

You are stronger than you think and if you can get up from a grand mal you have proved it. Sometimes we just don't see our strength.

The people here are great at helping, there is always someone that can relate and offer that help to get you over the challenge and prepare us for the next challenge.

Be strong.

 

[kirsten]

I'm with Cint: Take it one day at a time. Now, I'm an atheist, so please don't think I'm preaching at you--I am absolutely not. But I always loved this quotation from the bible: "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself." Trying to cope with epilepsy and develop a positive attitude is impossible. Trying to cope with epilepsy and have a positive attitude today is more than possible--if you go about it in a smart way, it's highly probable. I won't pretend to know more than you do about attitude, so I will just say that when you're finding tools in the moment and in the day, you will slowly learn and become better at it until you have a very good idea of how to cope and are coping almost all of the time. When you wake up in the morning feeling dread about how you'll manage 'this', cut yourself off and ask yourself whether you can manage this day, or this minute. In the beginning, and under more difficult circumstances, I couldn't manage the day. I had to do it one second at a time. After I woke up, all I asked of myself was to get up and have a cup of coffee. That's really easy. Then I told myself I could manage a shower, and doing that was easy. And so I went about the rest of the day until it was over. Granted, I was also suffering from a trauma at the time, so the experience was probably more severe because of that.

It isn't necessary or even advisable to feel happy or 'positive' all the time. It's more appropriate and helpful to understand that being positive means feeling everything you feel so that you can pass through those stages in order to get to the other side. There is a reason we feel fear or anger or grief, and these emotions aren't negative ones or a sign of a bad attitude. A bad attitude is refusing to process those feelings and trying to feel great every day. If you can get past seeing some emotions as negative and some as positive, you will have done yourself a great favour. Having seizure after seizure, with severe drug side effects, an ailing income due to illness, and strained relationships due to epilepsy, tends to make a person feel crap. Please don't run around clapping your hands and skipping along.

When you're diagnosed, the appropriate and healthy response is to start a grief process, which helps you to accept and come to terms with your new reality. That process entails some denial (The doctors are totally wrong and I'm not sick at all), some anger, some short term depression...and eventually acceptance. Acceptance doesn't come first. It comes last. So if you really are wanting to have a positive attitude, you will need to get through the grief first.

 

[valeriedl]

After I have a seizure I always say - That was then but this is now. I know I'm going to have them and there's nothing I can do about it so I'm not going to sit around and feel sorry for myself.

I also say - It feels better to laugh than it does to cry!

 

[BIGMAN131307]

How do you maintain a positive attitude?

Well I think Mickey says it best in this clip:



_______________________________________________________


You need to take each day one at a time. Make the most of each one.

 

[kirsten]

Don't you just love those Eighties oafs in their college jackets with their pretty curls?

 

[Belinda5000]

Janet,
acceptance really helps if you've done that it'll help you out.paying attention to what your told about your case by your neuro also can help there are no two cases a like.
I know my seizures can happen at any time and I've never been in denial.
You have a life even if you have epilepsy and your not controlled, I refuse to stay home and wait for my next seizure.
Do what your suppose to don't stop taking your meds because of sideeffects, talk to your neuro about side effects.

 

[janet11]

Hi Belinda I am working on the acceptance thing. Still finding it so unfair. Not just for me but for anyone who has to deal with this epilepsy. I know I just need to let that go and accept it. But it is hard