One of the symptoms of the disease I have (Anklosing
Spondylitis) is fatigue and I don't just mean feeling tired after a day’s work.
I am more often than not, not able to do any work or be active for a whole day.
In fact when one of the medications I am on gets close to being administered,
my A.S. gets worse as well as some of its ancillary symptoms like fatigue and
chaotic sleeping patterns. After I get the medication in my body it takes a
good 10 days for it to take me up to a below average state of health as it is
neither a cure nor gets rid of all the pain, stiffness and discomfort that I
have at all times. It is however a great help and means that I can achieve more
than I used to. In fact 2010 was a very bad year for me and I would spend days
at a time holed up in my flat so fatigued that I essentially did nothing
productive and struggled at times to feed and care for myself. Last year
however saw a turnaround when my Methotrexate was increased which allowed my
Ant-TNF to become more efficacious. The 5 -6 weeks that I am at my optimum
health I can lift heavier weights, stay awake longer, think more clearly and be
more active. It is for this reason that I have been able to continue doing voluntary
work; that in 2010 I thought I may have to give up as I was finding it a
struggle. In fact I took on another client and now deliver library books to
three people which consists of two households as two of the people are a
couple. In 2011 I also started a college course on ‘Creative Writing’ mainly to
improve my English, start Blogging and to see if I could start writing short
stories and poems. At times I find it very difficult to keep these activities
up. Now getting to the title of this Blog; “Applying 'The Pygmalion Effect' to
myself.” It is my expectation of myself and praising myself for doing as well
as I have and the periodical rewarding of myself that has helped me make this
effort a reality for me. I shall go into further detail of the finer points of
this in further Blogs some with examples from my life, some with information
and psychological insight and others a combination of the two.
