Hi all After initially perhaps a little blaze after a formal CIS diagnosis - I’m finding it quite difficult to cope with the fear of another attack. Specifically it’s the eyesight that is bothering me. I’ve had Optic Neuritis in the left eye and been told I’m 80% likely to progress to MS at some point. I’ve been SO LUCKY in that my Optic Neuritis but at the end of the day there are dead nerve cells and vision loss. I know now lucky I’ve been that my vision wasn’t greatly affected. Obviously the fear is - what if I’m not so lucky next time and I go blind, lose my driving license etc etc. Glasses don’t fix it, there’s no fix - you’re done for and there’s no way back from it. Obviously the logical thing to be telling yourself is that it might never happen, but asu I’m sure you’ll all sympathise with - its just not that easy and I still find myself searching and reading about atrophy and relapses and blindness. Has anybody got any practical tips in dealing with the fear or relapse or 2nd attack? I’m sure everyone goes through this fear so I’m not alone - I thought it wouldn’t bother me too much, but I was wrong, it is 
I must use computer not ipad - my typing is the worst!!!
For me it was CBT…whilst it can’t make it go away or even get better, it helps relieve the stress and some of the fear by just having an opportunity, every week, to go bllllllaaaaarrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh !! Xx
Counselling is definitely something to consider. It helped me to deal with fears about the future when I was diagnosed and that fear is the same whether it’s MS or CIS. Re optic neuritis, it is very unusual for someone to go permanently blind. It normally affects one eye at a time so visual loss is compensated for by the other eye and it usually recovers well. Some people do experience repeated attacks of ON, but many have it just the once. Knowing facts about ON may help a bit, but the best help is time and experience: as time goes by and nothing happens, fears lessen and actually dealing with attacks reduces their mystery and teaches us that we are far more resilient than we thought - that we’ll be OK. Karen x