A Very Late Intro

SarahBear invited me to join her on this blog ages ago, and I really did intend to jump right in, but life got in the way. I got a new job, and it's taken my body a couple of months to adjust to the whole working thing again.

I'm really horrible at the whole introduction thing, I've never been very good at trying to tell folks who I am and what I'm about, but here goes nothing. First the basics - I'm a middle-aged, married homebody who loves to read and write, but is a bit inconsistent because when I'm depressed everything I write comes out as depressing, cynical, or both; and I'm depressed a lot. That's mostly because I have fibromyalgia and bipolar disorder (along with a laundry list of other chronic issues,) and they sometimes feed on each other. The pain and fatigue from the fibro will trigger depression, which messes with my sleep and increases the levels of pain and fatigue, which makes the depression worse, etc.. etc.

It's a vicious cycle, which isn't helped by the fact that I can't afford to see a doctor or pay for prescriptions. Hubby works full time, but half of his check goes to child support and state-ordered health insurance for the kidlet, and I don't usually get more than 26 hours or so at barely over minimum wage. After rent and utilities, food, and transportation, there's very rarely anything at all left over, so I make do with ibuprofen and what herbs and essential oils I can scrape together, along with things like meditation that don't cost anything.

I've been off of all prescription meds for two years now, and being desperate for relief can lead you to all kinds of interesting new options. I've discovered quite a few natural options that help, and have become absolutely fascinated with alternative treatments. I check out almost everything anyone suggests, and experiment with it to see if it works for me, and I frequently pass it on for others (fibromites will usually try almost anything to get relief.) I've had some friends provide me with a few books on herbs, and I actually got interested in aromatherapy (for bath products and skin treatments) years ago, so I already had a good bit of reference material available on that. Between what I had, what I've been given, and what's available on the web (checked, double-checked, and then checked again for accuracy); I've been learning a lot about how to manage my symptoms naturally. (Did you know that many people with fibro have low magnesium levels? Stress depletes magnesium, but soaking in a tub with a couple of cups of epsom salts will allow your body to absorb needed magnesium thru the skin, and the hot soak will relax your muscles and help ease your pain, too.)

When I write, that's mostly the sort of thing I write about. Medical issues, disability issues, symptom relief, and what works for me. I also write about things I've found on the web that might be helpful, or about the properties of various herbs and essential oils. I'm currently working on a series of articles on stress and fibro, with individual articles on various categories of stress reduction methods, although I'm not sure where I'm going to publish them yet. I try to avoid doing posts that are just "blowing off steam," although some of those slip in too, when I'm feeling sorry for myself, or something makes me particularly angry.