Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system that can affect the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Common symptoms include fatigue, bladder and bowel problems, sexual problems, pain, cognitive and mood changes such as depression, muscular changes and visual changes.
MS affects each person differently.
This may block or slow down the communication between your brain and spine with the rest of the body. You can have numbness and tingling, balance problems, dizziness, vision issues, fatigue, or other things including problems with sex or your bladder and bowel.
In addition to the clinical impact of disability and comorbidities, MS has also been shown to affect patients' ability to maintain their professional lives, with approximately 50% of patients losing their jobs 5 years after receiving a diagnosis.
Those symptoms include loss of vision in an eye, loss of power in an arm or leg or a rising sense of numbness in the legs. Other common symptoms associated with MS include spasms, fatigue, depression, incontinence issues, sexual dysfunction, and walking difficulties.
MS may also affect your emotional health. Symptoms can affect how you manage your daily activities, including personal and professional relationships. Physiologically, it can also affect parts of the brain that control a person's mood or anxiety level.
Multiple sclerosis can take a toll on all your relationships. If your symptoms flare, you might not be able to go to family dinners or social events after work. You may feel that you've let people down. MS also can affect your self-esteem.
The complications of MS range from mild to severe. They can range from fatigue to the inability to walk. Other problems include loss of vision, balance, and bowel or bladder control. Depression can result from the difficulty of living with a chronic condition.
Your multiple sclerosis diagnosis will have an impact on everyone who loves you, especially family members. They may experience the same wide range of emotions you do as they adapt to living with MS: fear, guilt, anger, denial, grief, anxiety. They will also have many questions about MS.
MS is a chronic disease that affects people differently. A small number of people with MS will have a mild course with little to no disability, whereas others will have a steadily worsening disease that leads to increased disability over time.
You may have to adapt your daily life if you're diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), but with the right care and support many people can lead long, active and healthy lives.
If you or your loved one has MS, you are probably familiar with symptoms such as difficulty walking, fatigue, and numbness or tingling. These and other physical symptoms can be severe and limiting. However, emotional changes and mental health challenges can be just as (if not more) disabling.
People with MS and their partners tell us living with the condition can create both physical and emotional barriers, which can put a strain on relationships. For some couples, worries about MS and uncertainty about the future can cause a breakdown in communication and intimacy.
Slowed cognitive processing speed and episodic memory decline are the most common cognitive deficits in MS, with additional difficulties in executive function, verbal fluency, and visuospatial analysis.
Last week, it was reported that Don Van Vliet, otherwise know by his rock legend persona Captain Beefheart (shown on the cover of Rolling Stone, May 1970) passed away at the age of 69 from complications of MS after many years with the disease.
MS can have debilitating effects, such as paralysis, blindness, impaired thinking and loss of bladder and bowel control. That's because scar tissue forms around the nerve fibers, preventing them from sending electrical impulses to and from your brain.
While many with MS will experience depression or anxiety at some point, more rarely, some people experience changes to their emotions or behaviour that don't seem to make sense, or that they aren't able to control.
MS can affect mood
worry, fear, moodiness, irritability and anxiety: normal in the face of unpredictability; anyone can become a bit irritable when faced with difficult challenges. depression is one of the most common symptoms of MS and a major risk factor for suicide.
Relationships can be profoundly affected by MS, particularly the relationship with a long-term partner, husband or wife. Coping with the physical symptoms, managing pain and fatigue can put pressure on the individual and those closest to them.
Explain to your family that you are still the same person that you were before the diagnosis. Share with them that you may have good days and bad days – and that you welcome their support through this process. If they can be present for you and simply listen, the experience will be life changing for everyone involved.
The study found that people with MS lived to be 75.9 years old, on average, compared to 83.4 years old for those without. That 7.5-year difference is similar to what other researchers have found recently.
Dating someone with MS, or being in a relationship with them, can be a source of happiness and contentment. However, the condition can also be challenging, meaning people may need to adapt their approach to spending quality time together, intimacy, and maintaining an emotional connection.
Despite these challenges, research shows people with MS stay married and get divorced at the same rate as the general population. According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Survey, two thirds of patients surveyed claimed their relationship stayed the same or improved following their development of MS.
MS can cause speech difficulties in different ways. It can affect the physical actions involved in producing speech and how your voice sounds. It may also change your understanding of language and the thought processes needed in deciding what to say.