Emotional Changes


That word. Those words. Multiple Sclerosis. Diagnosis. I can’t understand what is happening, or why it’s happening. “But I’m so young. But it’s not fair”. I guess it’s too late for those now. “What will I do? Will I be able to walk next year?” That is what floods my mind, as I walk down the hall, from the office after I rose slowly from the chair.
 
Sitting in the hospital, getting steroids again, I can’t help but think about how annoyed I am. I had a life, I had things to do, I don’t have time for this. I guess it’s too late for that now.
 
I haven’t said very much lately, I guess I haven’t had very much to say. I haven’t seen very many people lately, I guess there aren’t very many people to see. I haven’t smiled that often recently, I guess I don’t have anything to smile about. I guess it’s too late for all of that now.

Emotional Changes

Not only does Multiple Sclerosis have an affect physically, it takes a toll emotionally as well. As soon as you’re diagnosed or the idea of being diagnosed is brought up in discussions with doctors, there are very real and powerful feelings that are usually brought to the surface. Also, throughout the course of the disease there are many emotional changes that can occur due to damage in the central nervous system.

New Emotions

Everyone will react to their diagnosis, or thought of diagnosis, differently. Some common feelings that individuals might feel upon diagnosis are shock, denial, confusion, anger, anxiety, or relief. Being in a state of shock is a common and understandable first reaction to being diagnosed with MS. It is also common for people to be in denial and to try to avoid the feelings associated with being diagnosed. It’s OK to have these feelings. It’s normal to have these feelings.
Confusion and anger seem to go hand-in-hand, they both come from a place of not knowing. Not knowing why this had to happen to you. Unfortunately, no one is really going to ever figure that out. Anxiety comes when you start thinking about what’s next, what’s in store for your future. And to feel relief when diagnosed? I know some that have. Often after years of experiencing symptoms and not being able to put a name to it, finally it has a name, and now with the name a course of treatment.

Different Emotions

But what about the emotional changes that happen after diagnosis? Once we have reconciled with ourselves that this is our ‘new normal’, what can happen then? Unfortunately, as it is with many symptoms, emotional changes are very common. These changes can include anxiety, mood swings, stress, depression and pseudo-bulbar affect.
  •      Anxiety: anxiety is a very common emotional symptom. Feelings of anxiety can stem from uncertainty with the future, to thinking about medical expenses, to thinking about how your other symptoms impact your current life.
  •      Mood swings: this is the most common emotional side effects that can happen with MS. Mood swings can present as moodiness, crankiness, anger or irritability. They can happen at anytime and can come out of nowhere.
  •      Stress: feeling stressed out is extremely common when having MS. Considering every day can bring a new challenge, having varying degrees of stress at certain times is quite common. Chronic stress can we can the immune system and increase your risk for other illnesses. Research has not been conclusive regarding the correlation between stress and relapses but stress certainly doesn’t help anything. Finding stress reduction techniques that help for you, that you can do daily, can be incredibly important in how you manage MS.
  •      Depression: major depression is also very common in people with MS. Surveys and research have showed that more than 50% of people with MS will struggle with major depression at one point in their life time. Since depression can put individuals at risk for doing harm to themselves, knowing the signs of major depression is important.
  •      Pseudo-bulbar affect: this is a rare type of emotional response but can still happen in individuals with MS. This occurs when individuals experience periods of uncontrollable crying or laughter, without a stimulus to elicit such a reaction. This reaction occurs due to damage in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain and is present for every 1 out of 10 people with MS.
The emotions that an individual is experiencing will dictate the treatment needed. Usually lifestyle modifications, therapy or medication are the most helpful interventions.
I have certainly struggled with my fair share of stressors and negative feelings stemming from MS. When I was first diagnosed I struggled considerably with anger. I was frustrated and mad that this happened to me. Anything that reminded me of having MS would put me in a pretty negative mood. It took me many years to come to terms with my diagnosis, and creating LissMS was one of the things that help me to shift my perspective on my disease.
Creating positive things from a negative one is a powerful way to shift our perspective and outlook. What is something that you can do that will shift your thought process about your diagnosis?

I’M ALISSA!

I help women who have also been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis make specific and personalized diet, lifestyle & subconscious changes so that they can begin to heal their body, reduce disease symptoms, and return to a life they love.hey there,

follow along on Instagram:

I think I’ve said this in every group I’ve run and with every client I meet with.

(A gross oversimplification disclaimer)
But this: 
people pleasing, being all or nothing, perfectionist (I could go on) 

Is (part of) why we got MS.

These patterns we play out each day are the hardest thing to change- and they also keep us with high stress, high MS symptoms and feeling like crap in our bodies.

Changing these patterns takes awareness, focus and support- all of which you get in Holistically Healing MS.

•If you want the ability to say NO when you’d usually just say yes.. (stop overriding yourself)
•If you want to be ok with putting your needs first (cause I know you’re not lol)
•If you want to finally feel like you’re good enough and doing enough (cause you are)

Join us in HHMS. Along with lifestyle strategies, we go process the emotional burden all those patterns have- which helps to move through them.

Comment HHMS below and I’ll send you the link.

I think I’ve said this in every group I’ve run and with every client I meet with.

(A gross oversimplification disclaimer)
But this:
people pleasing, being all or nothing, perfectionist (I could go on)

Is (part of) why we got MS.

These patterns we play out each day are the hardest thing to change- and they also keep us with high stress, high MS symptoms and feeling like crap in our bodies.

Changing these patterns takes awareness, focus and support- all of which you get in Holistically Healing MS.

•If you want the ability to say NO when you’d usually just say yes.. (stop overriding yourself)
•If you want to be ok with putting your needs first (cause I know you’re not lol)
•If you want to finally feel like you’re good enough and doing enough (cause you are)

Join us in HHMS. Along with lifestyle strategies, we go process the emotional burden all those patterns have- which helps to move through them.

Comment HHMS below and I’ll send you the link.
...

18 8
At some point you have to start trusting the things you’re doing will help and stop jumping to a new thing each week.

Giving up gluten one week?
Then dairy the next?
Maybe jumping into an exercise class a week later?

At some point you gotta pick 1-3 things and stick with them long enough to give them time to make changes in your body!!

Not just a day or week either.

Yes change can happen fast, but usually not that fast. You need to stick with things for long enough to see if they’ll help.

Often you give up before it has a chance to shift anything.

If you’ve been bouncing from thing to thing, throwing random things at the wall and hoping they stick, hoping something will move the needle an inch so you feel even a little bit better.. 

My course Holistically Healing MS is for you.

This is the place to find what works for you, to decrease your MS symptoms.

Comment HHMS below and I’ll send you details.

At some point you have to start trusting the things you’re doing will help and stop jumping to a new thing each week.

Giving up gluten one week?
Then dairy the next?
Maybe jumping into an exercise class a week later?

At some point you gotta pick 1-3 things and stick with them long enough to give them time to make changes in your body!!

Not just a day or week either.

Yes change can happen fast, but usually not that fast. You need to stick with things for long enough to see if they’ll help.

Often you give up before it has a chance to shift anything.

If you’ve been bouncing from thing to thing, throwing random things at the wall and hoping they stick, hoping something will move the needle an inch so you feel even a little bit better..

My course Holistically Healing MS is for you.

This is the place to find what works for you, to decrease your MS symptoms.

Comment HHMS below and I’ll send you details.
...

6 2
At one point I wanted:

•To be able to comfortably go on a walk again with my boyfriend (now husband)

•To not feel like an anxious mess every time I thought about the future (and potential disability)

• To not have waves of pain coursing throughout my body 

I don’t want those things anymore,
because I have them all.

No, I’m not totally cured of feeling anxious about the future, and I still have days (like today tbh) where I feel like a load of 💩

The difference is: 
I can manage all the symptoms
and anxiety
and feeling like 💩
better and differently than I did before, using all the tools I have accumulated over the 15(!!) years I’ve lived with MS as a patient and practitioner.

And these are the tools I share with my clients.

And the tools I share with you inside my Holistically Healing MS course.

This course is an 8 week journey into supporting your MS body so that it can begin to heal.

I know you have the same dreams as I did, 
I know because you’ve told me we’ve talked about them 🤩

I want you to have those things too.

Holistically Healing MS waitlist is closing tomorrow, comment HEALING and I’ll add you to the list.

At one point I wanted:

•To be able to comfortably go on a walk again with my boyfriend (now husband)

•To not feel like an anxious mess every time I thought about the future (and potential disability)

• To not have waves of pain coursing throughout my body

I don’t want those things anymore,
because I have them all.

No, I’m not totally cured of feeling anxious about the future, and I still have days (like today tbh) where I feel like a load of 💩

The difference is:
I can manage all the symptoms
and anxiety
and feeling like 💩
better and differently than I did before, using all the tools I have accumulated over the 15(!!) years I’ve lived with MS as a patient and practitioner.

And these are the tools I share with my clients.

And the tools I share with you inside my Holistically Healing MS course.

This course is an 8 week journey into supporting your MS body so that it can begin to heal.

I know you have the same dreams as I did,
I know because you’ve told me we’ve talked about them 🤩

I want you to have those things too.

Holistically Healing MS waitlist is closing tomorrow, comment HEALING and I’ll add you to the list.
...

14 6
I was talking to a client this week and she talked about how mad she was that she has a chronic illness.

How frustrated she was that she has to “manage this dumb disease” and “has to pay attention to everything she does”.

She also went onto say that she really wants to do all the helpful things, but just can’t get out of these stuck and frustrated feelings.

I get it- I definitely remember feeling similar feelings years ago. And I’m sure you’ve been here as well and might still be there at times.

I wanted to share the reframe that really helped her:

I told her, instead of focusing on “managing your disease”,
what if you thought about how you can set your future self up for feeling better/success/health.

Take the disease totally out of it.
What is 1 thing you can do to help your future self today?

She paused for a moment and I could almost see the light bulb go off in real time (one of my fav moments lol).

She said: that feels so much better and more doable.

If you’ve also been struggling with frustrated feelings about “managing your disease” these are the types of conversations we’ll have in Holistically Healing MS.

Yes I’ll be sharing about diet strategies, movement to help symptoms and stress management techniques, but we’ll also dive deeper into your feelings about it all.

Over the many years I’ve been working with clients, I’ve discovered that these thoughts, feelings and beliefs you have about yourself and your health are the biggest thing to stand in your way.

And when you have support to work through these feelings, you’re able to feel so much better faster.

Only those on the HHMS waitlist will get the presale price, and the opportunity to join the waitlist is dwindling (waitlist gets access next weekend!).

Comment WAITLIST below and I’ll add you to the list!!

I was talking to a client this week and she talked about how mad she was that she has a chronic illness.

How frustrated she was that she has to “manage this dumb disease” and “has to pay attention to everything she does”.

She also went onto say that she really wants to do all the helpful things, but just can’t get out of these stuck and frustrated feelings.

I get it- I definitely remember feeling similar feelings years ago. And I’m sure you’ve been here as well and might still be there at times.

I wanted to share the reframe that really helped her:

I told her, instead of focusing on “managing your disease”,
what if you thought about how you can set your future self up for feeling better/success/health.

Take the disease totally out of it.
What is 1 thing you can do to help your future self today?

She paused for a moment and I could almost see the light bulb go off in real time (one of my fav moments lol).

She said: that feels so much better and more doable.

If you’ve also been struggling with frustrated feelings about “managing your disease” these are the types of conversations we’ll have in Holistically Healing MS.

Yes I’ll be sharing about diet strategies, movement to help symptoms and stress management techniques, but we’ll also dive deeper into your feelings about it all.

Over the many years I’ve been working with clients, I’ve discovered that these thoughts, feelings and beliefs you have about yourself and your health are the biggest thing to stand in your way.

And when you have support to work through these feelings, you’re able to feel so much better faster.

Only those on the HHMS waitlist will get the presale price, and the opportunity to join the waitlist is dwindling (waitlist gets access next weekend!).

Comment WAITLIST below and I’ll add you to the list!!
...

11 2
My reality has changed a whole bunch over the years.

I started out with only a few symptoms. But I could get through the day.

Until all of a sudden I couldn’t.

All within a few years I went from “fine” to:
Having horrible symptoms, had 3 relapses and found myself with “aggressive MS”

This was not ok with me.

Eventually, I took my life into my own hands and rethought how I did most things.
I realized I had to make some changes, or else idk what else was gonna happen to me.

So I did.

I changed my diet.
I changed how I worked out.
I changed my job in the name of stress management.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you want this transformation for you too (I know it’s possible) I’m launching my signature course: Holistically Healing MS in a few weeks. 

This is the course you need to get started on this path for yourself.

Only the waitlist is gonna get the pre sale price… 
Comment WAITLIST below and I’ll add you to it!!

My reality has changed a whole bunch over the years.

I started out with only a few symptoms. But I could get through the day.

Until all of a sudden I couldn’t.

All within a few years I went from “fine” to:
Having horrible symptoms, had 3 relapses and found myself with “aggressive MS”

This was not ok with me.

Eventually, I took my life into my own hands and rethought how I did most things.
I realized I had to make some changes, or else idk what else was gonna happen to me.

So I did.

I changed my diet.
I changed how I worked out.
I changed my job in the name of stress management.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you want this transformation for you too (I know it’s possible) I’m launching my signature course: Holistically Healing MS in a few weeks.

This is the course you need to get started on this path for yourself.

Only the waitlist is gonna get the pre sale price…
Comment WAITLIST below and I’ll add you to it!!
...

49 9
This is the reality I lived, I want you to experience it too.

No, this is not a quick fix.
No, these results wont happen overnight.
No, this won’t cure you.

BUT-

Yes, you can have your life back.
Yes, you can feel better than you do right now.
Yes, your current reality doesn’t have to be a forever reality.

My success years ago was all thanks to the diet changes and the work I put in to know exactly how to eat to support MY body and MS at the same time. 

Yes it took a few months, but what it gave me back was my life- and that’s priceless. 

I’m spilling all the beans on what this process looks like and how to do it in my upcoming Masterclass:
5 Secrets To Creating Your Own MS Diet. 

Comment CLASS below and I’ll send you the link to sign up!!

This is the reality I lived, I want you to experience it too.

No, this is not a quick fix.
No, these results wont happen overnight.
No, this won’t cure you.

BUT-

Yes, you can have your life back.
Yes, you can feel better than you do right now.
Yes, your current reality doesn’t have to be a forever reality.

My success years ago was all thanks to the diet changes and the work I put in to know exactly how to eat to support MY body and MS at the same time.

Yes it took a few months, but what it gave me back was my life- and that’s priceless.

I’m spilling all the beans on what this process looks like and how to do it in my upcoming Masterclass:
5 Secrets To Creating Your Own MS Diet.

Comment CLASS below and I’ll send you the link to sign up!!
...

14 5
This is my vision for the masterclass I’m hosting next Monday.

I want this to be an interactive experience where you learn how to best take care of yourself and MS symptoms through the food you’re eating.

Instead of:
- feeling hesitation and confusion around what foods are best for MS
- not making changes because you’re afraid you’ll do it wrong 
- saying no again to going out to eat with friends 

Find the freedom and confidence you’ve been looking for.

Comment CLASS below and I’ll send you the link to sign up!!

This is my vision for the masterclass I’m hosting next Monday.

I want this to be an interactive experience where you learn how to best take care of yourself and MS symptoms through the food you’re eating.

Instead of:
- feeling hesitation and confusion around what foods are best for MS
- not making changes because you’re afraid you’ll do it wrong
- saying no again to going out to eat with friends

Find the freedom and confidence you’ve been looking for.

Comment CLASS below and I’ll send you the link to sign up!!
...

11 3
Do any of those hit home? 
 If yes… comment MASTERCLASS below.. I got you

Do any of those hit home?
If yes… comment MASTERCLASS below.. I got you
...

14 3

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