What does RA feel like? How do you deal with the pain? Some of the questions I get often. Quite simply put RA can be VERY difficult at times to deal with. (I'm putting it mildly ) A good support system is VITAL to an RA fighter. You must be surrounded with people who care and try to understand and are there for you when times get too rough. I remember being diagnosed at age 24 ( been symptomatic since I was 15 but took a very long time to get that diagnosis) as nobody in my whole family had RA or any type of autoimmune disease for that fact. I was in utter shock and felt so very overwhelmed. All I saw was photos on the internet of crooked damaged hands and people in wheelchairs. Was this my phait? I had no one around me that had RA and could even fathom what i was going through so young mentally , emotionally and physically.
My daughter had just turned 2 and I had only been married a few years with a new mortgage payment to worry about. How could I be sick so young. What did i ever do to deserve this? Would I be able to continue working? Will I end up in a wheelchair? Will my hands be all mangled like the internet photos? So much left uncertain. It was and still am to this day very easy to get overwhelmed and depressed. The pain is like no other i have ever felt. You hurt in joints you didn't even know you had and RA does nothing but spread and get worse if it isn't kept under control by good strong meds ( that's another story how harsh the meds are but we will talk about that another time) and even then there is no guarantee as too how well it will control the pain or if the meds will even keep working. 
It is so easy to get depressed. A kind of depression that is worse than you have ever felt. Such a deep depression that some days , as much as i hate to admit it, you feel better of dead than alive and may even pray that you would die rather than to have to endure the chronic pain day in and day out. ( I know this first hand and i know for a fact I am not alone on this one)
So how do you cope with all the emotions, stress, depression, pain day in and day out? Simply put you have to take one day at a time. Maybe some days one hour at a time as the pain can be that intense. You have to become stronger than you ever thought you could be. Most of all you have to fight everyday with your own body to not let the disease have control.
I can tell you it is very easy for RA to take control and rule your life. If you were not a fighter before you have to become one. You won't always win there will be off days were you cry yourself to sleep or want to give up but we just have to get right back up and carry on. You can NOT let RA win. This is my life and not RA's . A motto I always live by is " I have RA, RA DON'T have me!" & no matter how hard life gets and you want to throw in the towel "NEVER , NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP!"
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