Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Losing my patience and compassion

There is always someone who is worse off than you are. I think it's important to remember that to aid in perspective - as Barbara50 rightly points out - but I certainly understand that it might not make you feel less miserable on a day to day basis. So it's natural to be sad and angry and frustrated. But that bitterness - that'll do you in every time.

So a few thoughts...

First of all, you do not *have* to watch what you eat. You can eat what you want, take meds to help with your symptoms, and suffer whatever consequences you cannot medicate away. Seriously. It's very important to remember that because it means you get to choose which path to take. You're not forced into anything. Eating what you want won't kill you. It won't even make you sick in any organic, debilitating, or life-threatening sense. So you can choose to eat in a way that makes you feel better or you can choose not to. It really is up to you.

Second, you're darn lucky to have that choice. A heck of a lot of people in the world are sick and can't do one single thing about it.

Third, the food restrictions you're looking at are really pretty minor. One thing that helped me a lot when I first started down this road was having a friend who was a Type 1 diabetic. For 20 years she had had to think about every bite that went in her mouth. Her example was inspiring. And beyond that, I knew that if I ate off-program, I risked having to run for the bathroom. If she ate off-program, she risked far, far more than that.

Fourth, I don't believe any of us has the right to decide who "deserves" to be sick and who "deserves" to be well. I know I joke from time to time about wishing IBS on those who don't understand it but the simple truth is that I believe every single human being on the face of the earth deserves health. Period.

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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