Your Most Important Relationships: Your Spouse and Your Self

   The most important relationship you will have throughout your PD is your relationship with yourself. You will need to find ways to nourish your spirit despite much adversity. You will need to find an inner spiritual core that can sustain you while you struggle to maintain a normal life despite PD’s daily intrusions. No one can tell you how to do this. No one but you knows what really recharges your batteries and imparts to you an inner calm, strength and fierceness. Whatever that thing is, that thing that gives you strength and a zest for life, you will need to nurture it and rely on it both to fight the PD and to keep your other relationships healthy and nourishing.
   The second most important relationship for you, if already part of your life, will be your ‘significant other’ -- your spouse or primary companion. This person is the one who will witness your hardest moments and your brightest. You have got to find ways to graciously accept all of the help they are willing to give to you. You also need to learn the ropes of coping with PD together. As much as you can, help that person learn about PD, keep spirits up and remain intimate with you. She needs you and you need her. Rejoice in that fact. Believe it or not, PD and its challenges can actually deepen and strengthen your relationship.

   Parkinson's disease can have an impact on the relationships you have -- sometimes for the good, sometimes not. But there are things you can do to deal with the effects your Parkinson's can have on connections with those close to you and foster the continuation of healthy and happy bonds.

Article taken from parkinsons.about.com