Aging, Poor Health, & Depression - How Do We Cope?
by Dwayne Decker
(New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada)
Me - January 2013
Hello, Folks! My name is Dwayne. I am 51-years, at present date (March 2013); but my multiple health problems have me feeling more like 91, and longing for my death-bed.
I've spent my entire life dealing with mental health problems. Physical health problems -- mostly genetic/inherited -- have been passed down over the years; each growing progressively worse ... each one playing of one or more of the others.
Besides Severe Depression, with Suicidal Ideation -- diagnosed at age-12; PTSD, from sexual & physical abuses suffered from ages 5-25; OCD, with a history of active Addiction from ages 10-31; and several Anxiety Disorders ... I also deal with genetic physical health problems -- High Blood Pressure, diagnosed in my early 20s; Diabetes, diagnosed in my late 20s, beginning insulin-therapies in my early 30s with insulin-resistance (inherited) developing shortly after and continuing to plague me; Compressed and Deteriorating Discs throughout the Lumbar region of my Spine (inherited), which turned to Scoleosis as I continued to lift and move in all the wrong ways; my first Angina attack was at age-12, and now I have an occasional Arrythmia, and Aschemic Heart Disease (fluid on the heart) first diagnosed in 2000. And I have had 3-4 different types of chronic, severe headaches since age-15. Also, I have developed every side-affect diagnosis - from my Diabetes -- possible, with the exception of amputation. And I don't have Cancer ... yet.
With the continually increased loss of physical mobility and mental capacity, from my Diabetic Neuropathy -- my Depression grows more severe every day. Being on a government Disability Pension, limits my income severely -- as I have not met a bureaucrat, yet, who knows how to make government fiscal budget formulas, actually MATCH the modern cost-of-living. All of this weighs me down more and more every day. I fail to see any reason to continue living with the pain and disability.
How do we cope with all these types of difficulties -- when they come-on so early; and when they FEEL (deep down, inside) so very overwhelming...
How do we cope?
Dwayne Decker