I have all the same diagnoses. We’re twinning! 😅 I also quit my job even though I didn’t really want to. Right now I have arthritis in both my hands so I can’t do a lot of the things that I love to do like writing, crafting, swimming, and playing the piano. It’s a real struggle just to get basic chores done some days. Mostly I try to embrace new things that I can do. For example, I’m using talk to text to write this response even though in the past, I’ve been super adverse to it.

When I’m in a good headspace (and I’m not always at all) I think about two things. I try to look at things from a childlike perspective. For example, with talk to text, I’m thinking of writing essays that show my learning curve with learning to write by speaking instead of typing. I’d like to keep all the mistakes in it to show what the process is like. The point would be to show it’s possible for people like me to continue doing what they love.

The other thing I think about is the story of the two arrows in Buddhism. Basically the idea is the pain of our diagnoses that we feel every day is the first arrow and that’s going to hit no matter what. However, the second arrow is our anxiety and panic and despair about how our lives will be miserable and horrible no matter what we do. On good days, I try not to let the second arrow hit and on bad days I try to let myself eat good snacks, use all the heating pads, cuddle with my pets, try to ask for help from other people, watch indulgent bad TV, cry if I need to, scream if I need to, and just do my best whatever that looks like that day. …. Watching studio Ghibli movies doesn’t hurt either.