Hi folks,

A couple of years ago I had an appointment with a consultant at our local hospital.

For some reason I asked him, "What do people usually say to you when they come to see you?" He seemed pleased that I had bothered to ask this question. He said, "They nearly all say the same thing; they say, "Make it stop; just make it stop." He said this in a way that implied his own feeling of powerlessness over the conditions he treated.

From my own long experience, and from reading posts from the brave people here on PC, I conclude that we can't always make it stop. Maybe we get lucky and it passes over, but for many of us here, including me, it comes back again. We try all the treatments and strategies; we talk to the professionals, we take the pills, and then we end up back here, sharing our troubles.

Sometimes we get long periods of a kind of remission, and get hopeful, only to get the symptoms back again, or walk into trouble again as our old patterns play tricks with us. It is so painful to see someone having to deal with the crisis point, and we all try to share the feelings, despite having our own triggers to cope with .

But we can't always make it stop, for ourselves or for others, no matter how much we would wish it. In the end, I sense that we learn to live as best we can with what we have, and that's all that we can do.

Good thoughts, M