Bad Isn't Always A Catastrophe

EXAGGERATED FEARS MAY HEIGHTEN PAIN.

- M.A.D.

You wake up and your knees are too sore to take your morning walk, so you

(A) Take an NSAID and a warm bath and plan an evening walk instead.

(B) Do some gentle exercises instead. C) Decide, “I might as well forget going for walks with these painful knees. From now on I will stay in bed.”

Your rheumatologist said your medicine may take a month to start working. You don’t see any change after three weeks, so you

(A) Tell yourself, “In just one more week I’ll probably start to notice results.”

(B) Wonder if the medicine is going to work, but continue taking it and hoping. C) Stop taking it, because “If it hasn’t started working by now, it’s not going to. In fact, nothing probably will.”