It is difficult to lose control of your body to a chemical reaction. Lifestyles are limiting. Hope is a candle battling the wind. People must live on, fight on, hold to hope, and work as best they can to improve the situation. 

MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) is an opportunity, albeit an unhappy one for many people. Some can't go outside. Some can't go to the store. Some can't find relief. MCS sets the stage, the rules, and the penalties. Acceptance goes a long way to calming one's spirit. Without acceptance, restlessness and unhappiness grow wild. 

Once accepted, then what? The starting gate opens. The track comes into view. The road awaits. 

If knowledge is power, then the lack of knowledge is the absence of power. The more one learns about MCS causes, treatments, and other information, the more control that person has.

With MCS, control is the most valuable thing. Controlling triggers, environments, and recovery is very important. Without these, MCS sufferers are subject to what others think is best. Unfortunately, some people refuse to believe MCS is real.

We all should have learned the saying "if you want something done right, then do it yourself." The real wisdom in this is that only you know, or can decide, what you want or need. You might not have enough information to make a good decision. Seek the knowledge necessary for your decision.

Don't ever quit. Why not? Because then you will have gone through it all just to walk away without knowing the purpose of it. Sometimes we have to quit, because we are simply unable to complete what we set out to do. For life itself, for trying to be healthier, for trying to wake up each day looking at the positive - don't ever quit.

Each life has a purpose. Each life comes with its own respective challenges, easy roads, and other unique things. You can compare yourself to someone else all you like. Which is more useful, a hammer or an apple? So why are you comparing yourself to someone else equally unique? Try to find the right thinking for you so that your life means the world to you. So why you, right? If you can quiet the distractions seeking your mind's attention, you just might figure it out for yourself.

No matter what your ailment, try to think of it as an opportunity. I know, opportunity for what? That's sort of up to each of us to find out. I mean, we've got some time alive, so we can spend some of it trying to figure out what it's about. I take each day as an opportunity to keep working on my health, my schooling, helping my family, and becoming a better person. I guess with so many bouts of illness, I am used to change.

On a final note for the people without MCS: you can do so many things without getting sick. Don't take it for granted. MCS sufferers would give up body parts and opportunities to be free of MCS. They could easily show you how to appreciate what you have to the fullest. Perhaps, those of us with MCS have trouble realizing that someone would be happier being us.

I hope people can try to find some happiness with their lives. The old saying, "things couldn't get any worse" does not encompass all possible things that are much worse than what you have now. For anything you like doing in your life, do you feel good before you do it? For everything you don't like, do you feel bad before doing it? So, if you can learn to like your life, then it might improve a lot of things. Attitude is one important factor in overall happiness. Fortunately, people can change their attitudes. Finding the methods to influence the desired change depends on the person. But, that doesn't belong here.