Unpredictability: The Undefined RA Trigger

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what comes next. It’s a pretty big subject when you live with a chronic illness like rheumatoid arthritis, especially because RA and its unpredictable nature impact so many different aspects of our lives. You could be forgiven for having it consume most of your thoughts all the time, always.

Living with RA means never knowing what challenges come next

Think about it really. When you wonder what comes next, what part of living with RA doesn’t that apply to? What happens in the next hour? Check. What happens in the next few hours? Check. What happens tomorrow? Next month? Next year? In ten years? I mean, the question always applies.

No wonder it takes up so much real estate in our brains. It’s like some sort of screwed up game show where the stakes are literally life and death. Welcome to “Guess What’s Next,” the game show where you have no idea what’s coming or when it’s coming, but you know it’s going to be bad. Yeah, like that.

Unpredictable symptoms can cause constant stress

The unpredictability of fatigue alone can take up an inordinate amount of time and that’s not even the only symptom that comes with rheumatoid arthritis. It’s no wonder many of us suffer from anxiety and overall mental stress. There is a veritable mountain of studies that show the toll unpredictability can take on a person’s psyche and mental wellbeing. Post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) is partially triggered by always worrying about what’s coming next and the damage that kind of stress might cause to the brain. Well, it’s what many people with chronic illnesses, like rheumatoid arthritis, live with every single day.

Tips for relieving some of the rheumatoid arthritis stress

So, what’s next in this article? Well, that is something that I can definitely answer to help put your mind at ease. I’d like to offer ways to mitigate the damage that question can cause and the stress adds to an already very stressful situation. I have been at this for almost 40 years now and, while I’m not an expert by any means, I certainly have developed a few methods that seem to work. Dealing with the unpredictability is at the top of that list.

Know that everyone deals with uncertainty

First, start telling yourself that no one is immune to the unpredictable effects of the world. Able-bodied (“normal”) people also have to deal with life’s foibles and whatever the world throws at them. That’s pretty much 99 percent of what it means to be a human: eating, pooping, and dealing with the chaos that life throws at you. Everyone is scared. It’s pretty much the human condition.

Admittedly, those of us living with rheumatoid arthritis have to deal with “chaos” that skews a bit more towards the “life-ruining” side of things, but the premise is basically the same. Always keep that in mind: No one has a perfect life no matter what Instagram says.

Imagine the worst-case scenario

Second, and this is going to sound more harsh than I mean it, but things will eventually pass. How do I know this? Well, because whatever comes along will either get better, or it won’t. If it gets better, then, well, it’s all good. You can go back to eating pop tarts and playing Candy Land for real money.

If it doesn’t get better, then one of two things will happen: You will either eventually incorporate it into your routine and make a new baseline or it will kill you, to put it bluntly. If the latter, then, well, you won’t be here and you won’t care anymore. I know, it sounds harsh but that’s the reality of it. In my experience, when you express the possibilities out loud, you rob things of their power to scare you with phantom fears.

Embrace RA unpredictability

Third, while you can’t get used to events you can’t predict, you can accept that unpredictable things will happen. I know, it sounds like a distinction without a difference, but hear me out. Yes, changes will happen to you out of the blue when you have RA, but instead of worrying, you just come to terms with the fact that things will happen. Then you can rob the phenomenon of half its power.

If you can get used to the existence of unpredictably and its utterly annoying fashion, then you can take the stress it triggers down from about 10 on the stress-of-meter to a more bearable 5 out of 10. Like anything else, just incorporate the fact that there will be bumps in the road at the most inopportune times into your life with chronic illness and it will help.

Expressing fear can weaken its power

There it is, the stress of living with the unpredictability of RA laid out in print. Hopefully, it’s not as scary as it seemed a few minutes ago. Like I said, sometimes just putting a name to a fear and laying it out can deplete its power. Look, it is still going to be bad when stuff happens. That’s a no-brainer. But at least you know that it will happen and, when it does, you will either deal with it or you won’t care anymore, morbid as that is.

It’s how I have dealt with the unpredictable nature of RA for decades and I can say that it works for me. Talk soon.