A bad day. Coping with the pain.

I'm going to be completely real and honest here, today is a bad day. I woke up after a restless night sleep with anxiety over what my future could be. For many teenagers planning the future can be stressful enough but when you have an autoimmune disease, your possibilities can be seen as somewhat limited.

After minimal sleep I woke up feeling extremely negative and my joints were totally matching my mood, I'm not sure if stress is considered a trigger for arthritis pain but I know that when I'm feeling more positive about my condition my joints feel a lot better.

It is so so hard to get out of the 'funk' and I am definitely somebody who wants to know as much as possible about the medication I'm taking and when you research 'Methotrexate side effects' it can cause a lot of panic. Not only can the medication cause stress but the possibility of the disease getting worse definitely keeps me up at night.

Stepping back from the internet and not googling 'juvenile rheumatoid arthritis' is sometimes needed, even though so many people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, everybody has different triggers and ways of dealing with the pain, so I try not to compare myself to other people too much. Coping with the pain can sometimes feel impossible but for me, distraction is key, focusing my mind on something completely unrelated to arthritis for even just an hour seems to work wonders. Don't get me wrong when the pain is so bad that you can't even put pressure on your hands or bend your elbows distracting yourself can seem so difficult.

Exercise is really good for joints and I know for most that staying in bed on bad pain days can make the day worse but  I think its so useful to get a healthy balance between resting and being active. On days when I'm most active I'm usually asleep by 9PM as simple things seem to take a lot more energy for me compared to others, which is so frustrating but something I'm learning to accept. Learning to do whats best for you and your management of the pain is so important. Tell people when the pain is bad. Let them know if there is anything they can do to help. Just try to keep in mind that there will be so many more better days, you just have to keep trying.