I might understand it but I am really not good at doing much about it! I'm even hesitant to reply to this Dow, because I'd hate to disappoint you.
But how about another angle, rather than avoid them, I wonder if we can condition ourselves to not respond in the way that we do to trigger events? Have it both ways?
If you can do it - more power to you!! I have tried and accept that I can't. My only chance lies in avoiding stuff that I recognise can be problematic for me. You won't catch me on a rollercoaster, ever - even though I used to LOVE them! And I also can't handle loud concerts any more. Well ok, I might make the odd exception..!
What I have learned is to relax, pace, and go gently through things that I want to do, or may not have a choice in doing, because I've recognised that my response to some things is beyond my ability to control... there is a basic *primal* response that
we I can't prevent, plus the disease itself is a real monster. I might be able to lessen the impact of something which is certainly helpful.
Take my brother as an example. Like me, he used to get iritis attacks repeatedly. Not as often as me but sometimes as much as once or twice per year and I worried that his would become 'chronic' too. At the time, his job required that he had to fly to other cities to teach. Due to my own experience, I watched and noticed that his attacks seemed connected to his air-travel and so I suggested to him that flying might = stress = iritis.
After all, part of plane travel includes physical stresses like crowds, noise, uncomfortable seating etc. but also emotional stresses such as, anticipation, anxiety of delays, missing family etc. Now my brother is a guy that operates entirely on logic (think Spock!) and after considering the possible tie, he began wearing earplugs to block out all noise that we are bombarded with on commercial flights, which not only improved his comfort (emotional and physical) but the result was positive and episodes of iritis reduced. Now, his work no longer involves air travel and guess what? He hasn't had an attack in, errr, probably 3 years now, and this despite the fact that he's a recreational pilot.
So that's my answer: avoid stressful triggers and try to lessen (condition) the impact of the stuff I enjoy, because life is too much fun to miss.
But the truth is, even with all of the above, the only thing that actually stopped my attacks was Remicade and all of my tricks seriously pale in comparison.
You have great thought processes to help you deal with this Dow
I bet it helps!
mig
