When you live under the banner of a degenerative disease such as Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), you become well acquainted with fear. You fear what your body has in store for you tomorrow, next month, next year, and the years after that. You fear falling or accidentally doing something that speeds up your symptom progression. You fear that you are not doing enough to fight for your future. You fear that you are fueled by fear rather than positive feelings like hope, joy, determination, or happiness. Or at least that’s true for me.
There are many ways to handle being afraid. Most of us have heard of the fight-or-flight response, where you either face your fears head-on or flee in self-preservation. After nearly nine years of living with FA, I’ve noticed that I take both approaches, sometimes on the same day, and sometimes in response to the same problem.