You have the right to go through stages. If you are pushed not to, more likely you will not cope as well.

In time you probably will be very vigilant to what sets off things and what is good and safe to do. It does take a while getting there, but learning what makes illness worse is golden. And only you can do that, it is your body.

I will not try to fool you, you probably have to sort of snake around the pitfalls and not be able to be youthfully reckless. But if you do, you might be able to live a pretty full life.

I know I can stand make quite huge efforts (all cannot) but then I have to rest for a long while. So it takes planning. For me, chronic stress is the worst for me. I recently stressed myself into a pretty bad pain episode. It was something from outside so I could not fit it into my schedule.

What your family MUST come to terms with is that even though you will probably be able to hold down a job, it cannot be any job and you can definitely not work a high pace job 11 hours a day. It is just out of the question. You and I have illnesses that might go for inner organs if we do not get the rest we need and put in too much effort. Personally I sleep 9-10 hours a day because sleep is when we heal. Us who have inflammation need to heal a lot. People might call us lazy but they don't know better.

Also your symptoms might get a lot better with steroids, they are pretty good at taking away inflammation. I opted out of that treatment since I don't yet render my symptoms severe enough, your case seems different. Just keep an eye on what the pred does, sometimes they can lower it after a while or lower it and add yet another med. I will not lie, it can be a harsh med depending. If you have a psychiatrist, they should be informed you take a steroid.

Every feeling you have is fine. You need through them and let your brain process them. That is how we eventually find some kind of balance. Not by thinking happy thoughts. At least it is my take on things. There is a time for anger, a time for fighting, a time for crying, a time for healing...