Monday, April 27, 2015

One Word Sentence

Illness, trauma, and crisis create the need for a lot of decisions. 

There are choices you will have to make, sometimes during the precise moments you are least equipped to make them. Important decisions, vital to the course of your survival, which need to be made, often without much time in which to make them. 

These decisions involve massive input from many sources, which will contain a vast range of differing ideas, warring beliefs, and conflicting opinions about which decision you should make. 

Some treatments follow a specific route while other treatments choose a different path. A family member may believe one thing while a friend believes something completely opposite. One doctor may have one opinion while another doctor desires a entirely alternate course of action. A blur of every one and every thing telling you what to do and how to do it.

It's a lot to process in an emotional and physically vulnerable time. The pressure, real or imagined, to make the right decision for you can be overwhelming, especially if there is a time factor with a scary deadline looming. You want to appease others and defend yourself. You risk being caught in circling debates with repetitive explanations, which wear you down and can leave you second-guessing yourself. 

You might feel the need to justify your choices and in doing so begin to doubt you are making the right ones. You can feel forced into a corner by overbearing opinions or strongly held beliefs. In being cornered, you can often feel metaphorically gagged, or at least emotionally muted, to what you actually want to say. Suddenly your decision isn't exactly your choice.




As a survivor it's extremely important to remember one thing...
"No" is a complete sentence.

There doesn't need to be anything beyond "No". You do not need to explain yourself beyond that. You do not need to defend your actions beyond that. You do not need to justify anything to anyone beyond that. 

You don't have to say yes to anything just because you are told you should.

You have the right to make choices about your body and your soul. You have the right to ask questions and change your mind. You have the right to say yes, or no, in the decision making process about your life. Your choices don't need to be elaborated on like something out of Shakespeare, unless you want them to be. 

"No" is a one word sentence. Do not be afraid to use it when you need to. Speak up. Be clear. The choices are yours to make.

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