Coping

A crisis arises, and you deal with it. What happens after the crisis is no longer acute, but the aftereffects remain? That's when you must figure out how to cope. I know that everyone copes with things differently, but it can still come as quite a shock that your family members don't do things the way you do, or the way you expect them to. Nevertheless, there were some common things that we turned to initially. By we, I mean, husband John and myself.

The first thing we did, was turn to books. OK, that's not entirely true. John wanted to make sure we had a diagnosis for Brian before he started investing. You know, he wanted the right subject to be concentrating on. And also, Brian's hospitalization was a week before Christmas, so we tried to muster up as much holiday spirit as we could, giving it until the new year to let it all sink in, and then we could start fresh.

If that sounds like we were all together, coping well, like one big happy family, that would not quite be accurate, but in our family we do seem to have a lock on putting on a good face. The bottom line though, in the back of our minds through the holidays, was that we must educate ourselves as much as we can, and get Brian in the best treatment plan possible.

That's really all I have to say about coping today. John and I plan to review the books we read, and the classes and support groups that we have attended, and may attend in the future. So stick around for that, and to check out more of the updates as I fill in the blog with more information. Links, other blogs, resources... that kind of thing.


 Hanging in there,