Happy Pills

Keeping active and busy helps take one’s mind off being ill. Whether it’s a job, hobby, or if you’re a little obsessive like me, spending hours every day campaigning for something you’re passionate about. I refuse to sit quietly in the corner holding my very own pity party and feeling sorry for myself. That approach isn’t going to help me, and most certainly would be detrimental to my family.

It’s odd how growing up in a family with four older siblings; under one roof, same parents, identical environmental surroundings, yet each of us have different natures and are totally individual. This begs the question as to what makes some siblings inherently cheerful and others morose, when brought up together under the same circumstances. Is being cheerful actually in our DNA? Could there be something in the brain that makes us naturally positive or negative in character? Perhaps there is a happy gene!   

If there is such a thing, then I guess I’m lucky in possessing the “happy gene” which gets me out of bed and through each day. Although there is no medical proof of such a gene, it’s the term my family have adopted to explain how I keep remarkably cheerful despite living with chronic ill health. I was amused to see that someone thinks along these lines and has come up with a novel idea; in a shopping mall, we came across a stall selling sweets. Their brightly coloured jelly beans were packaged in little boxes resembling first aid kits labelled “Happy Pills”! 

Have you ever had surgery? Most of us have at some time or other, and like all things, it comes down to how you handle situations. This is where I find having a sense of humour a tremendous help. My article this week in The Huffington Post focuses on 'the night before' surgery.