Ivan,

>I'm in my 12th year of PD.  How do those of  you with 10 years of PD. or
>more, deal with ACCEPTING PD,

Well fellow 12th year veteran that's a good question.  Just how do we
"ancient mariners" of the PD world accept the fact of our PD.  Each of us
can only answer for him/herself and it will be interesting to see if there
are any recurring elements in the answers you get.  These are my strategies:

In one sense the question is redundant. As well ask how I accept that I am 6
ft tall, right handed, and short sighted.  What is is and time and energy
spent bemoaning the fact is time and energy wasted.  I have no time or
energy to spare so I am very choosy when deciding which battles I will
fight.  Ones I cannot win don't even get onto the list.  (which is not to
say I win every battle I fight - but winning must be possible)

The second strategy is a close relation to the first.  I try to know and
accept my limitations.  The second part of it is the most important - I do
everything I can with the abilities I still have.

Third,  I try not to  fool myself.  I know that the cure is years away, (and
lets face it we all know that unless we are masters of self deception) I
look that fact squarely in the face.  I tell myself that what I have now is
as good as it gets for the foreseeable future so I had better do the best I
can with it.  Or to put that another way, I try to keep my hopes for the
future within the bounds of possibility,  that way I avoid setting myself up
for a fall.

And last, I follow the oldest advise in the book - take one day at a time.
I try to use today's energy to meet today's challenges.  There is never
quite enough for today's needs.  If I have squandered it on fearing tomorrow
or regretting yesterday there is even less.

I don't always succeed in putting the above into practice, but my success
rate is high enough to keep me on a fairly even keel.

Dennis

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Dennis Greene 48/11
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http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/
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