I think this could go a long ways toward explaining why conventional pain killers fail miserably with things like RA. Maybe. I don't know enough about it yet. I've been looking for more info. (And maybe explain why booze does more to help RA than anything else... a shot of something strong makes your joints feel much better, and a pickled brain knows no fear)

I find it all somewhat strange, and maybe to late, when I think of the overwhelming sense of dread that Hunter S. Thompson said he felt all the time. He too, suffered from severe RA. (As well as other stuff) I remember reading somewhere about something he said... The constant sense of fear and anxiety that he had as he grew older. I can not help but wonder if it was this sort of thing that caused him to off himself the way he did. I wonder if he had lived a little longer, if maybe he would have changed his mind about killing himself knowing this information. He said one time with complete seriousness that the only thing that kept him sane in his life was knowing that he could kill himself and escape any time he wanted. I think of others that have thought the same, have done the same, and can't help but wonder if this knowledge may have changed their outlook.

Learning this, seeing this, has taken an incredible load off of my own shoulders. It is as if somebody cut shackles off of me or something. I feel... Liberated and relieved knowing about this, and for once, there is real hope of destroying the disease, not just pacifying the symptoms. I've felt it all day today. I've been in a better mood than I have been in quite some time. Even my wife has noticed.

Today, I was finally able to say to my self "This too, shall pass" and I believed it.