Dysautonomia (Dys) and The Walking Dead.....

I am a Walking Dead fan and I am quite proud to say that.  Yes, I have been sucked into the whole Zombie Apocalypse scenario and I don't plan to leave for quite a long time.  Oh I admit that with having Dys I don't have a chance in h*ll of surviving it.  In fact most days I would probably feel better if I were actually a zombie, at least most of them are still upright and wandering around, but that is not the point I am trying to make here.

There is a show on each Sunday right after The Walking Dead.  It is called The Talking Dead and usually features an actor or a couple of actors or staff from The Walking Dead and a guest star.  On the show they discuss that night's episode and what happened in it.  Last night's episode was called "Alone" and focused mainly on Maggie, Sasha and Bob.  It also had Daryl and Beth in the storyline and I was very excited to see where that part of the story was headed but then the writers crushed all of our hopes when Beth was taken and Daryl couldn't find her. Noooo!  That was just mean!!!
Anyway back to The Talking Dead.
Last night's guest were Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green).  Durning the show one of the guests asked Sonequa what human characteristic a person would need to best survive the zombie apocalypse.  Her answer was Hope.  Now let me say, up until last night I honestly never compared having Dys with surviving the zombie apocalypse, but Sonequa's answer really got me thinking.  There is definitely something that the characters from The Walking Dead and people with a chronic illness have in common. They both need to have hope to survive.

Hope is the one thing that gets us through the day.  Just like in the walking dead, people with a chronic illness need to believe things will get better.  Like how Maggie hopes to see her husband Glenn again one day.  That hope keeps her strong, it keeps her going when things get rough.  Without that hope Maggie and Glenn would probably give up and in the zombie apocalypse, as well as in life when facing a chronic illness, giving up is the worst thing you can do.

There are other things that The Walking Dead can teach those of us with a chronic illness.  We need people with a positive attitude around us to keep us filled with hope when life gets to be too much for us to handle on our own.  In The Walking Dead the group had Herschel.  Herschel was the one person who provided them with faith, hope, and a level head when things got so bad that they just wanted to quit. He was always there with a story, a sermon or just a good old positive speech to keep the group grounded.  We all need a person like Herschel in our lives when dealing with things that bring us down.  Even now that Herschel is gone it is the lessons that he taught them that keeps them going.  I think we can all come up with one person in our lives, whether they are still with us or not, whose strength and positivity we can lean on.

The Walking Dead has shown us that a group is stronger than any one individual, except maybe Michoone, can be.  Sometimes we can't do this alone.  We need the support and strength of others to survive.  There is strength and hope in numbers and if we stick together we can get things done.  In other words don't go it alone.  Join a support group, find others going through what you are going through and lean on them.  Get involved in spreading the word about what it is you are going through so that others going through similar situations can gain knowledge from you.  Get the people you care about together and keep them close.  It's easier when you don't have to do this alone.

And of course the most important lesson we can learn from The Walking Dead is FIGHT! Never give up.  No matter how bad the situation seems, no matter how much you want to give up, keep fighting.  You don't know how strong you actually are until you are faced with a bad situation.  So pick up your weapon of choice, mine is a computer, and fight the toughest fight of your life. You may just find that it really is HOPE that keeps you going through thick and thin......oh and maybe a little Daryl Dixon wouldn't hurt either!