SaintChains
Active member
I am dismayed by the number of people on HH forums, this one included, who have no real internal mental fortitude. I know that it has been eroded by a sea of anxiety that batters it constantly - but you must fight back at this.
I am concerned that sufferers of this condition - and I do have it myself, so I understand the suffering - are relying too much on drugs the efficacy of which we know not only varies from person to person, but can abandon one with time.
What is needed is a quietism, a stoic detachment and inner calm from the storm. This is incredibly difficult, and perhaps impossible to achieve completely (persons throughout history have been climbing mountains in search of it for millennia), but it can be a great help, one that will never abandon you, a palliative with no side effects that you know will always work - because it IS you.
I have noted two other user in particular (and I'm sure there are more) on this forum who I believe think this way and want to be this way, and have the strength to do so. mattbarneswillkillu has a thread titles "Attitude is Everything," and he is absolutely correct. He also has an interesting conversation going with Mozart22. I praise them both for their inspiring efforts and flag theirs as the right path. Hats off, gentlemen.
How long are we going to rely on Robinul? Odaban? Drysol? And any other treatment without forging a strength that is unassailable? People want mountains in their path to climb, challenges are important to a life because the view from the summit is unforgettable. THIS is our mountain; our weakness is our strength.
Blah, blah, New Age bull****. No. This is not bull****. There is a strong tradition, in both eastern and western religions, mysticism, philosophy, etc., that if what you want causes pain, you train yourself to want something else. We are focusing far too much on stopping the sweat, on being dry. What we need is to accept it as a part of our nature, to stop fighting against it. It is only a problem because we make it so. We are not in pain from this condition, we are not prevented from doing things that others do. If we refuse to see it as a problem then the problem disappears.
I sympathise with those who are shaking their heads and saying, Easy to say, hard to do. I am nodding my head and grinning. Yes, easy to say and hard to do, I will be the first to agree with you. But what easy thing ever brought one comfort? We have been placed at the foot of the mountain that others spend their lives just trying to find. Furthermore, just by living through every day we are scaling it. Imagine the strength of spirit that you will achieve! What else, when you are dealing with this struggle, when you are facing it, teeth bared in defiance and daring it, DARING IT! to do worse - what else, I ask again, could touch a soul such as that?
I am not advocating tossing the drugs aside completely, but I do encourage you to embrace the self-content man of Stoic philosophy. The self-content man is one who desires friends [analogous here with treatments] but can do without them, said Seneca (more of less). He is self-content, he needs no drugs because he has his own reason, his own soul, that which makes him human and cannot possibly be bruised unless he wills it. Do this. Make it a daily habit. Wake up in the morning and tell yourself that there is nothing that can bring you low unless you allow it.
There are a number of ways to do this, and in an effort to help you find them, I will be posting a maxims/observations here in this thread every Sunday for the next few months, in no particular order. I hope it all helps you, but even just a single sentence, a simple phrase, can become a mantra to pull you up that cliff-face.
1 - Reacquaint yourself with "positive" sweating.
If you are anything like me you will have spent most of your time seeing sweat as something to be avoided at all costs, and the frustration that comes with the sweat is demoralizing. I believe that this has created an imbalance. For too long sweat at any time has been a bad thing. Lately, however, I have been going to the gym with the sole intention of sweating as much as I can in an environment where it is "okay" to do so, where it is acceptable. I think this is important because it can help to redress that skewed perception that sweat is always bad and hopefully help to cope with the "abnormal" sweat. See the gym as a community of fellow sufferers, if you like, a place where you can go to feel "normal," where your sweating is accepted. If nothing other than a general increase in fitness and health is achieved, this too is nothing to turn away from. A physically healthier person is a mentally healthier person, a more relaxed person and, consequently, a drier person. Can't afford the gym? Just go jogging! The point is to establish set times when you exercise to the point where you are well-drenched, and recognise that it is so because you chose it to be so, because you wanted to be, and that it's okay. This will work best with more people around. Let me know how you get along.
P.S. - I encourage others to post in this thread their tips exclusively for inner toughness of spirit. This is NOT a thread for new treatments pertaining to drugs or HH products.
P.P.S. - Again, mattbarneswillkillu and Mozart22, I congratulate and encourage you, sirs.
I am concerned that sufferers of this condition - and I do have it myself, so I understand the suffering - are relying too much on drugs the efficacy of which we know not only varies from person to person, but can abandon one with time.
What is needed is a quietism, a stoic detachment and inner calm from the storm. This is incredibly difficult, and perhaps impossible to achieve completely (persons throughout history have been climbing mountains in search of it for millennia), but it can be a great help, one that will never abandon you, a palliative with no side effects that you know will always work - because it IS you.
I have noted two other user in particular (and I'm sure there are more) on this forum who I believe think this way and want to be this way, and have the strength to do so. mattbarneswillkillu has a thread titles "Attitude is Everything," and he is absolutely correct. He also has an interesting conversation going with Mozart22. I praise them both for their inspiring efforts and flag theirs as the right path. Hats off, gentlemen.
How long are we going to rely on Robinul? Odaban? Drysol? And any other treatment without forging a strength that is unassailable? People want mountains in their path to climb, challenges are important to a life because the view from the summit is unforgettable. THIS is our mountain; our weakness is our strength.
Blah, blah, New Age bull****. No. This is not bull****. There is a strong tradition, in both eastern and western religions, mysticism, philosophy, etc., that if what you want causes pain, you train yourself to want something else. We are focusing far too much on stopping the sweat, on being dry. What we need is to accept it as a part of our nature, to stop fighting against it. It is only a problem because we make it so. We are not in pain from this condition, we are not prevented from doing things that others do. If we refuse to see it as a problem then the problem disappears.
I sympathise with those who are shaking their heads and saying, Easy to say, hard to do. I am nodding my head and grinning. Yes, easy to say and hard to do, I will be the first to agree with you. But what easy thing ever brought one comfort? We have been placed at the foot of the mountain that others spend their lives just trying to find. Furthermore, just by living through every day we are scaling it. Imagine the strength of spirit that you will achieve! What else, when you are dealing with this struggle, when you are facing it, teeth bared in defiance and daring it, DARING IT! to do worse - what else, I ask again, could touch a soul such as that?
I am not advocating tossing the drugs aside completely, but I do encourage you to embrace the self-content man of Stoic philosophy. The self-content man is one who desires friends [analogous here with treatments] but can do without them, said Seneca (more of less). He is self-content, he needs no drugs because he has his own reason, his own soul, that which makes him human and cannot possibly be bruised unless he wills it. Do this. Make it a daily habit. Wake up in the morning and tell yourself that there is nothing that can bring you low unless you allow it.
There are a number of ways to do this, and in an effort to help you find them, I will be posting a maxims/observations here in this thread every Sunday for the next few months, in no particular order. I hope it all helps you, but even just a single sentence, a simple phrase, can become a mantra to pull you up that cliff-face.
1 - Reacquaint yourself with "positive" sweating.
If you are anything like me you will have spent most of your time seeing sweat as something to be avoided at all costs, and the frustration that comes with the sweat is demoralizing. I believe that this has created an imbalance. For too long sweat at any time has been a bad thing. Lately, however, I have been going to the gym with the sole intention of sweating as much as I can in an environment where it is "okay" to do so, where it is acceptable. I think this is important because it can help to redress that skewed perception that sweat is always bad and hopefully help to cope with the "abnormal" sweat. See the gym as a community of fellow sufferers, if you like, a place where you can go to feel "normal," where your sweating is accepted. If nothing other than a general increase in fitness and health is achieved, this too is nothing to turn away from. A physically healthier person is a mentally healthier person, a more relaxed person and, consequently, a drier person. Can't afford the gym? Just go jogging! The point is to establish set times when you exercise to the point where you are well-drenched, and recognise that it is so because you chose it to be so, because you wanted to be, and that it's okay. This will work best with more people around. Let me know how you get along.
P.S. - I encourage others to post in this thread their tips exclusively for inner toughness of spirit. This is NOT a thread for new treatments pertaining to drugs or HH products.
P.P.S. - Again, mattbarneswillkillu and Mozart22, I congratulate and encourage you, sirs.
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