Healing is not only a physical process, but an emotional and mental one. If there’s anything that I’ve learned with battling cancer and now pushing through TSW, is the importance of keeping a good, hopeful attitude and having positive thoughts of affirmation. In dealing with different situations, the way we think and the words we speak into existence can either have a negative or positive effect on our bodies in so many ways…
Continue reading “Words of Affirmation & Scriptures for Healing”
There are many caregivers out there on the itsan.org forums sharing there stories, asking for advice and venting along with those who are suffering. I commend those who can be a stronghold for those going through topical steroid withdrawal. I know for myself, at the beginning stages of my healing, my mother was my rock who was there for me through all the ups and downs. She would express to me how helpless she would feel, in knowing that she couldn’t take this pain away from me, or even take on the pain herself. Through her love and encouragement, as well as the encouragement of my friends and family I kept pushing through, and I’m continuing to push through, no matter how agonizing it can be at times. A caregiver member on the itsan.org forums expressed so beautifully his side of this illness and portrayed it in a painting. I would like to share with you all his work Eternal Optimist…
My wife is 3 months into her withdrawals. I feel for everyone who has to go through this. In honor of my wife and all the countless others who have gone through this and are going through this I did this painting. It was very therapeutic for me to paint this.
When the one you hold most dear has been in chronic pain with no end in sight, lack of sleep and no sign of lasting help, can’t remember the last time there wasn’t any pain, rational thinking and reason have temporarily been itched away. Watching and listening to your most beloved moan and cry, with sights and sounds you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy, claws at your very soul. When the once most positive, optimistic person you have ever met has lost all hope and has attempted to exit the stage. Sideline judges speak in shadows out of ignorance and cast reasons why, out of their houses made of glass. The raw grit of life won’t let you run. Selflessly giving, you are the Eternal Optimist for the other.
I’ve been checking out the International Steroid Addiction Network forums for a few months now and I always feel this strong sense of community and love whenever I check out a post. It’s great to have others who are going through the same difficulties as you share their experience, knowledge, and just give encouragement to keep pressing on. We all lift one another up, and this post shows that perfectly. I was so touched by the beautiful response that was given to a question about being self conscious and embarrassed about TSW, that I just had to share…
Continue reading ““Temporary suffering. Permanent healing.” – itsan.org forum response post”
This TSW process can tend to break one down on so many levels, making it hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes, and hard to not fall into the depths of depression. I’ve found that reading inspirational books have gotten me through the rough times and have changed my whole perspective on this situation and life in general. I just started reading this book called When Your World Falls Apart – Seeing Past the Pain of the Present by a pastor named Dr. David Jeremiah (what an intense title eh? lol) and he talks all about his trials and tribulations of going through cancer and the lessons that it taught him, as well as stories from others going through rough times. He likes to call these trials “disruptive moments”.
This passage, quoted from a British journalist named Malcolm Muggeridge stuck out to me: “As an old man, looking back on one’s life, it’s one of the things that strikes you most forcibly – that the only thing that’s taught one anything is suffering. Not success, not happiness, not anything like that. The only thing that really teaches one what life’s about – the joy of understanding, the joy of coming in contact with what life really signifies – is suffering, affliction.”
The lessons that I have learned going through this TSW experience as well as having Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer a few years back are:
*Feel free to comment on what lessons were learned in your times of suffering ❤
-Jen
Eczema Holistic Healing 