How to Live With Multiple Sclerosis

By eHow Health Editor

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When you receive a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, your world changes. Questions about what the future will hold with this disease in your life and how your lifestyle will change race through your mind. Live a better life with MS by building a support network of friends, family and your physicians.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Counselor or therapist
Calendar
Physical therapist
Assisting devices
Neurologist
Pen or pencil

Step1

Expect that MS will change the way you live your life. Symptoms such as fatigue and muscle weakness may challenge your ability to function fully in everyday activities such as work and family life. Talk to your doctor about medications and equipment that can aid in reducing fatigue and develop a healthy rest pattern to maintain your strength.

Step2

Take your medicines as prescribed by your neurologist. The success of any of the disease modifying therapies is dependent on your consistently administering the drugs in the correct manner and dosage. Get a calendar to help you plot out when you should give your injections and what area of your body you should inject each day or week.

Step3

Eat well and exercise to your best ability. The sedentary life imposed on many people with MS may lead to secondary health problems such as heart disease and obesity. Talk to your doctor about developing a nutritional plan to maintain a healthy weight and request a referral to a physical therapist who can design a program of stretching and exercise which will keep you active as long as possible.

Step4

Seek help from a trained counselor or therapist if you feel overwhelmed by fear of the future with this disease. MS is very unpredictable, leaving many with this disease to dread the passage of time and the sense of not knowing how they will be affected by it as time goes by.

Step5

Understand that your initial plans for life may need to be altered. MS tends to strike when most people are just starting out in life, in their 20s and 30s. Brainstorm about how you can adapt your training and skills into different professions before you find that you are unable to continue in the career you had set out for yourself.

Tips & Warnings

Any diagnosis of a serious illness such as Multiple Sclerosis may bring on feelings of severe depression and even thoughts of suicide. If you or someone you know is suffering from depression seek medical assistance in dealing with this serious condition.