Have you turned into a coach potato or a fixture in your bedroom? Living with RA is hard enough, but the limitations it imposes on your daily living can cause depression and disassociation with friends and loved ones. It is so easy to sit at home, medicate, and use your hot and cold packs, and even harder to attend an outing with friends and family because of random bouts of pain, and even depression.
I have been both the coach potato and a DUSTY fixture in the bedroom, lost friends because I could not bear walking and “Going Out.” After speaking with my nurse practitioner about depression and the need to seek professional therapy, she introduced me to ZOLOFT. Yes, it has side effects, but so does everything you take for RA, some of these drugs even cause depression and suicidal thoughts. My nurse practitioner could not understand why I had not been placed on an anti-depressant sooner (after 20 years) because of the medications I had taken and was currently taking.
I still have pain, inflammation, and at times depressed because my body puts up a fuss. Nevertheless, since I have been on the anti-depressants, I go to the movies, walk, and the only dust I remove is off my shoes.
Written by Felicia Williams-Elliott, survivor of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis for 17 years.
