Would you like to have a terminal illness?

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But but but...... quote pyramids are so pretty!

Everybody is dying. Just because some are dying sooner, they get special treatments?
As I am now; I get irritated at the treatment given the dying. Oh, he's got cancer, he must be such a wonderful person.
If I had a terminal illness; I'd tell those w*kers to piss off. Like hell anybody's gonna make a scene if I'm noticeably dying!

But, yeah, it also irritates me that all the sympathy of the world is given to happy people with shorter lives; whereas I'm made to be miserable by my isolation, and will lead rather a long, depressing life. Terrific.

Relativity; anyone? Anyone? No?

Terminal illness is one thing NOT to be joked about! I have watched and nursed my own Mother through one and I am at risk of getting what she had. Sure I am NT but that doesn't matter. Terminal illness sucks!! !! !

Who says we're joking? I'm quite serious; for sympathy to be shown to the shell of a being, yet I am greeted with hostility simply for being born as what I am? It's no joke.

I don't wish I had a terminal illness. I already have quite a lot of things wrong with my poor little body as it is and its damned inconvenient too.

No, when I go, I want it to be quick, though now I am almost 50 and feeling very excited about it, I am looking forward to maybe trying for 100, not sure we have those kinds of genes in our family though, we tend to get to the eighties with ease and then bumph, gone

Sorry that came out a bit harsh. If people are ignorant then that is their problem. All you need is just one to say 'be yourself and don't give a damn what other's think'

Ishmael, are you sure your life has to be isolated and depressing? You don't have to be isolated if you don't want to be. You have control over your life. There's never an excuse to be miserable and depressed!

Ah, but that's the problem. There are things I want to do, want to be - and things I need to do. A person I need to be.
I can't abandon what I need; I'd never be able to rid my mind of it. But, by being what I need to be; it's impossible for me to be what I want. I have control over my life, sure - but the choices I have aren't particularly grand. Either way I'm missing the other part.

Ishmael, I want to tell you something about me. I have had a really difficult life, I don't want to go into why on this forum, but I don't let the fact I have had one stop me from trying to live a decent life, not entirely isolated and miserable. I hope you will do the same.

I have been prescribed anti-depressants, stong and mild. I now take Lexapro and feel so much better. The feeling is like one of calm serenity. The other medications I was given were too strong for me. I used to think like you and thought there must be better ways to control the mood problems. I drink chamomile and peppermint teas to help calm me also.

Sometimes, like it or not, the medications are necessary and they do work if taken according to directions and not taken in over abundance as drugs or with alcohol to increase other personally desired effects. The pharmaceutical companies need to have their prices more regulated but for some reason our country does not feel the need to do this so yes those companies make big bucks off of our medical needs. The fact that there is something out there that can help us with medically diagnosed problems should not give due recourse to the pharmaceutical companies to charge us out of the backside for medications. Our government should protect the consumers by regulating pricing for drugs.

Look around you though, because lately our big business comrades have taken it upon themselves to deal with the drug cost issues. Many companies who have pharmacies as part of their business are offering discounted generic drugs at one flat price so that Americans can afford some of the drugs that we do need to maintain our physical and mental health. These companies are our champions in pushing forward in the goal for pharmaceutical pricing regulation. We the public need to rally our voices and push to gain more support from these big companies so that they will champion our cause and help to lower even further the costs of drugs in America.

This thread pisses me off in its existence, but this comment is particularly egregious. Terminally ill people are "the shell of a being"?! ! Aside from being factually wrong--many terminally ill people are quite lucid for long periods of time--the statement is just gross. You're complaining about how other people degrade you, and yet you yourself degrade others? This statement is especially bad because the OP mentioned nursing a family member through terminal illness. How very compassionate.

I'm very sorry that you and others here have suffered so, but this resentment directed at terminally ill people is really misplaced. Somehow I doubt being treated sympathetically (or with pity) is so great when you've gone through months or years of painful illness and treatment only to know that you're going to die anyway. Argh.

Yeah.

Most terminally ill people I have known don't want the pity, they've done what they have to do to get used to the fact they're going to die, and they want to live until they die, not be treated as if they're dead already.

It's no different than if I were to get hit by a bus next week and killed, I'd still be me and still alive until that happens. Everyone's going to die but when you have a terminal illness it just means you know more about when it's going to happen.

I remember reading a book by a disabled lawyer. And she talked about how one of her clients had AIDS and wanted to get his affairs in order before he died. And she said he loved her because since she had a condition that had made her prepared for death since she was a kid (she hadn't expected to live to adulthood), she had no hangups about death, didn't shower him with pity, and just got on with it. He had been clearly nervous about her possibly pitying him, and when she just matter-of-factly said "Okay, so what are you going to want to do with your stuff once you kick the bucket?" he totally relaxed and got on with it because he knew she was not going to pity him or get nervous about talking about death.

But anyway... yes, terminally ill people are not a shell of a person. Not even when it affects their thinking -- even people with severe dementias or delirium or other cognitive impairments are people. And it's really offensive when people talk about them being empty shells or vegetables, same as it is when people talk about us that way.

Brilliant post and an excellent story too. Very inspiring. People are in general far too afraid of dying.

I think it is an interesting thread, the OP is surmising. He has worries, he's looking at what he sees as the reality of his situation, and he sees death as an option as being a way out. Also it brings up a taboo subject, it's a good thread.

I'm curious to know why it is impossible for you to be what you want.
What are the issues that prevent you from getting to where you want be and doing what you want to do. Maybe there are ways to problem solve and find tiny steps that can help you get to where you want to be.

I am a painfully shy and nervous person, once I would go red in the face and be overwhelmed with nervousness just to walk into a hospital. Now I work in one.
I still come up against barriers, also, I'm happy to be a slave to drug companies, they are my gods.

Edited to state, drugs do need to be taken with care and caution.

Clearly you misunderstand. The body is the shell of being; the body is dying. I'm not angry at the ill - why would you suggest such a thing? How did you get that I was envying the sympathy they recieved? Please, pay closer attention before commenting.
Don't simply accuse people of such things with only minimal information.