No one dx with MS is lazy.

One of my colleagues in my local MS Branch said this at a collection/awareness event today.

I felt flattered as I think it’s probably true that at least before dx most people are very busy, often highly motivated and hard working.

Love to all xx

I’m wary of generalisations (even positive ones) about personality traits of whole groups of people whose only uniting characteristic is the same damn illness!

Like the previous poster, I feel must hold my hand up to never having been “the life and soul”, and rarely doing today what was possible to put off 'til tomorrow, even when I was well.

True, I was conscientious about those things I did do - I don’t think anyone ever accused me of doing a sloppy job. But I didn’t do more than was necessary. I could never describe myself as “driven”, and I wasn’t one of those people obsessed with making every waking minute count.

Having said all that, it’s becoming more and more apparent to me that although I wasn’t diagnosed 'til my 40s, I’ve had MS a very long time. I think perhaps since my 20s, and sometimes I wonder if it doesn’t go back further still. I couldn’t do anything involving balance or coordination at school. I had terrible problems with writing, and couldn’t grip a pen properly. Going back to pre-school age, I lacked confidence about stepping off a kerb! Now all this might be quite coincidental, but in a way, I feel MS has brought nothing new. The problems I have had have always been there - it’s only the degree of them that has worsened.

It is now recognized that MS can start in childhood, so I will always wonder.

But the uncertainty about when it started means I can never know for sure what is personality, and what was due to illness. I do wonder if my life would have been a lot different if I hadn’t spent years feeling one degree under. I used to feel tired all the time just doing the essential things. I didn’t want to party or socialise, and I wasn’t always on the lookout for the next best thing, because I was always tired and/or taking painkillers, with what I already had.

I was notoriously late for work - which I think they mostly forgave as an eccentricity, because I was good at it while I was there, and never the first to leave. But I wonder if it was a sign I was already getting tireder and more run-down, and struggling to pull myself together in the mornings. :frowning:

Tina

I agree with you Tina about failings and eccentricities but I too was terribly conscientious with my work always had the feeling that I needed to work harder at it as I was inclined to make mistakes.

I have never been the life and soul of the party either; as work, duty to family and the animals in my life were always my priority I still think there’s something in what she has to say. Perhaps because she has come across quite a few (usually young women) who were working hard after uni and whose lives had been unfairly altered by MS.

Wendy x

lets be honest, there are MS sufferers who can be lazy as there are non-MS sufferers who can be equally lazy. we are all fallible and everyone experiences times where they need to be lazy, its just a case of tempered laziness to certain times… i am delighted to know that my own genuine fatigue (which may by others be called ‘lazy’), resulting me going to the doctor week upon week feeling like a total hypochondriac , having multiple blood tests, the need to pull over to the side of the road when driving home from work is now attributed to my MS, and nothing more sinister.

there will always be people who call those with MS ‘lazy’ as well… plus ca change eh?

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hiya

i think they completely different things-ms and lazy i mean.

for me i have always been ‘on the go’ physically and mentally. now physically is impossible but i try to keep mind alert (as regular board members will know!) am still sat in goonie today and thats not cos i am lazy-i havent got the strength to get dressed and hug is playing up so plan b for me today which is extra meditation-it does help manage the pain and remind myself i am a geek apparently! see nuttyp’s thread!

i know some very lazy folk, hey thats ok cos they often want to sit and chat!

ellie who hopes u find something to smile about today!

I would be delighted if MS had cured me of laziness, but no such luck.

Alison

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Just reading the additional posts to this thread and see that, although I signed my post, I posted anonymously. Just in case it appears that I am somewhat ashamed of my laziness I just wanted to make it clear that I embrace my ability to “smell the roses”

jane

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Yes, I think it’s safe to say I have “smelling the roses” down to a art form.

I’ve obviously not put my point across clearly enough, I am talking about before you had MS, don’t tell me you weren’t conscientious.

and yes I have learnt to smell the roses too. but only after I was dx with MS.

I’d guessed it was you, Jane - the signing yourself “Jane” was a bit of a giveaway.

Not an uncommon name, I suppose, but even if it hadn’t been the same Jane, I would have concluded that someone who gives a signature can’t be that ashamed or embarrassed, so I thought the “Anon” was likely finger trouble.

I agree with you - no point being ashamed of who/what we are. In a way, I think it might have made it easier that I was never the kind of person who was rushing around like a blue-***ed fly - never enough hours in the day. As I could easily spend hours curled up with a book, sooner than wanting to go and do anything energetic like sport, maybe failing health didn’t hit me as hard, I dunno. Mind you, even the reading has tapered off. I used to read in bed, but now have to be so drugged-up before retiring that if I pick up a book at all, I barely make it through a couple of paragraphs.

Tina

x

Hello Wendy. have you heard that saying, “flogging a dead horse”

I do think your colleague meant well and had the best intentions but she couldn’t possibly know how motivated the majority of people were before their diagnosis. I think she could have chosen her words better.

Of course when I was younger I had dreams and ambitions and many of them I’ve achieved. All my life experiences have changed me and taught me lessons.

I actually enjoy my slower pace in life now and not having to rush everywhere-just wish it came without the MS and the rest

Keep smiling x

Me too! Perhaps that’s what we were meant to do.