With multiple sclerosis, do you view your glass as half-full or half-empty?

When presented with a drinking glass containing half the water it can hold, a pessimist would say that it’s half-empty while an optimist would say that the glass is half-full. A realist would probably demand to know who drank half of their water, and an idealist might simply be grateful that there was some water left and make the best of it.

I don’t think that anyone embodies just one of those personalities all the time, although I’ve met some people who make me question that theory. Others definitely seem to have a favorite, but I believe life consists of a blend of those states. I know that my life with multiple sclerosis (MS) certainly does.

MS is easy to be pessimistic about. After all, what’s to like? It’s a lifelong disease with no cure, and the symptoms are debilitating, unpredictable, and sometimes invisible. There isn’t any part of my life that MS doesn’t touch, and its touch is never gentle. While there aren’t as many as there were at the beginning, there are still plenty of moments when I look at what’s missing from my life and think that my cup is half-empty.

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I suppose I could choose to feel like that all the time, but I try to balance it out with a healthy dose of optimism. I have plenty in my life that would lead me to consider my glass to be half-full. For one, I have a very supportive family, understanding friends, and a great network of others with MS that I can reach out to.

Two, there are new treatments for both the disease and its symptoms being developed all the time, so there’s a chance the future will be bright.

The first is present fact while the second is future hope. Hope is a sort of optimism, fed by idealism, and needs to be tempered with realism.

Idealism tells me that a new discovery or proposed therapy has the potential to be groundbreaking. Realism reminds me that the process takes years, from concept to reality, and is statistically more likely to fail than to succeed. I have no intention of letting go of my idealism. I’ve written before that, for most of my life, I was taught that hope is not a course of action. Well, with MS it is — as long as it’s realistic hope.

I might have considered it this way at one time, but now I don’t think that this is an either-or situation. I believe that you can be pessimistic, optimistic, idealistic, and realistic about MS. I also believe that the first three are held together and strengthened by the last one.

If you have realistic pessimism, realistic optimism, and even realistic idealism, then, in my opinion, you have achieved a healthy blend of outlooks.

I brought up these four outlooks in the first paragraph along with the well-known water glass analogy, but what about an opportunist? In that scenario, the opportunist would probably say, “While you guys were busy arguing about whether the glass was half-full or half-empty, I snuck in and drank all your water.”

I’m sure there’s a lesson about MS there, too, but I couldn’t find it. If you know one involving realistic opportunism, please share it in the comments.

Note: Multiple Sclerosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Multiple Sclerosis News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to multiple sclerosis.