Can Do MS

Essential Tools To Manage Stress in MS by Can Do MS

Every day you are faced with countless decisions. What should I have for breakfast? What clothes should I wear? Other decisions, of course, are more complex, such as which bill to pay first or how to strategize with a work team to impress a potential customer. Some decisions are reflexive, requiring minimal thought; others require thoughtful consideration of the implications and a process for arriving at the choice or plan that works best for you.

The challenges of multiple sclerosis can make even the simplest decision feel more difficult. For example, selecting what clothes to put on or what to make for breakfast can be complicated by MS fatigue or problems with cognition, balance, or fine motor coordination. And with MS, your challenging decisions are not limited to your daily routines. You must also make decisions related to the management of your MS and the symptoms it can cause. These individual decisions, while seemingly isolated, can have a snowball effect on your overall health. This requires a multidisciplinary approach to decision making.

For example, you may be considering ways to manage the spasticity and decreased sensation that are interfering with intimacy…or trying to figure out how to manage the fatigue and cognitive challenges that are affecting your performance at work. Perhaps, you’re struggling with the decision to use a mobility device – Should I...? Shouldn’t I...? What will people think? Do some or all of these challenges and scenarios sound familiar? Do you feel confused or uncertain about the best treatment options and management strategies for your MS? The good news is that you don’t need to make any of these decisions on your own. In addition to the healthcare professionals who help you manage your MS, Can Do MS and other MS organizations can offer valuable information and consultation and point you to helpful resources. Others living with MS can share their experiences, hard-earned wisdom, and “best practices” with you.

When making a decision, it’s important to consider what options are available, who in addition to yourself may be impacted (your support partner, other family members, colleagues at work, etc.), and how this decision will improve the situation. The best place to start when making a decision about managing your MS is with your healthcare team. Each member of the team can offer a valuable perspective because different disciplines may have different strategies for managing a challenging symptom. For example, MS related fatigue can be managed by a physician with medication and by a physical therapist with exercise and energy management strategies. With stress, a mental health professional may offer mindfulness strategies to reduce the stress that can contribute to feelings of fatigue, while an occupational therapist can make adaptations to your home to make daily activities easier. The goal of any discussion with members of your healthcare team is to arrive at a decision or plan that works for you. They can help you individualize a framework of priorities, which are the core values that guide your decisions.

Roy Disney once said “When your values and goals are clear, making decisions becomes easier.” All decisions should help you achieve or move you toward a functional, attainable, personal goal. If the chosen treatment or management strategies don’t move you closer to your goals, you can work with your healthcare team to identify plan B.

"The Relationship Between Exercise and Cognition" by Mandy Rohrig, DPT.

If you have been diagnosed with MS, some of your initial thoughts might be around how your work life may be impacted. Don’t panic! Don’t make any decisions too quickly. Allow yourself the time to review your situation and explore the various resources available. Many people continue to work with MS, and while some changes may need to be made, managing your career with MS is really not that much different than managing your career without MS.

Pain is a common and complex symptom for people living with multiple sclerosis. Creating and maintaining strategies for managing pain is an important component of wellness. It is estimated that approximately 65% of the MS population experiences some form of pain, which is an internal experience that others cannot see. Pain is a complicated symptom to address because it has many causes and many treatment approaches. For these reasons, it is important for people to develop a useful and common vocabulary when discussing pain with their health care team and planning their best course of treatment. Often times, the focus of treatment is managing rather than eliminating pain. However, pain left unmanaged is often associated with poor quality of life with respect to emotional well-being, personal relationships, concentration, and physical functioning.

As the holiday season approaches, we look forward to fun times with family and friends—and food as the centerpiece to all celebrations. But if just the thought of holiday entertaining seems overwhelming and exhausting, don’t despair. These four simple strategies can help you relax more and stress less.

Many people find fatigue to be one of the most complex and challenging of the symptoms they face with MS. It is often called an “invisible” symptom since it cannot be seen on its own. To make matters worse, friends, family, and associates may not understand the severity of MS fatigue and expect you to simply “push through it.”

Everyone has down days and times of feeling sad or blue, but people living with MS have more than their fair share. In fact, the rate of clinical depression is higher in MS than in the general population, as well as higher than in most chronic illnesses. The numbers are similar to those seen in other neuro-inflammatory diseases (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease), suggesting that the inflammation itself plays a role, along with changes in the brain and the psychosocial challenges of living with a challenging, unpredictable illness. Today, we know that depression is one of the most common symptoms of MS. Like all of the other symptoms of MS, it deserves to be diagnosed quickly and treated effectively. The good news is that depression is very treatable.

Living with multiple sclerosis demands incredible patience and resilience in both the person living with MS and his/her support partner. Symptoms may change from hour to hour, day to day, or month to month. The continuous process of adaptation that the disease requires can be both emotionally and physically exhausting, as one is constantly working to achieve the “new normal.” The demand for adaptation can be particularly challenging during times of “transitions.” These transitions may include disease progression, transitioning to an assistive device, leaving the work force or transitioning to disability, or dealing with worsening fatigue.

Feelings of frustration, annoyance and outright anger are common occurrences in everyday life. Add MS to the equation, and it’s even more likely that people will have differences of opinion and conflicts. Some examples of these conflicts can be about how things are done, division of responsibilities, activities and making decisions. Under these circumstances, it would be the rare person who never loses his or her cool.