Has anyone else completely stopped medical treatment?
After trying all the different treatments out there and multiple neurologists and the dozens of medications they throw at us to manage the side effects of the treatments and the disease itself, has anyone just thrown in the towel and said forget this and completely stopped seeing all medical doctors and completely stopped taking all of their medicines and Ms treatments? Is there anyone who does not go to the doctor at all anymore and when you get an episode you just deal with it and don't go for yearly checkups and imaging to see if you have new lesions and just let nature take its course? If so how do you feel now? Did it help or do you feel it has made things worse? What coping mechanisms or self treatments have people like this tried to manage their symptoms on their own and have any of these home treatments been successful? I'm just curious if i I'm the only one and if I'm not how others experiences have compared to mine.
I think almost every community member here can relate to the "I am done with all this B.S." moments of living with MS, CommunityMember2145 . It can be pretty freeing to imagine a life without invasive tests and medications with gnarly side effects.
Personally, I have heard too many stories of what uncontrolled MS does to a body, but I also respect that each individual has the right to choose what treatment path (if any) is right for them. You have to do what works for you.
That said, I know of a few individuals who have gone off all conventional treatments, with varying levels of success. I am not aware of any member of this community that has eschewed conventional treatments for more than a few years, so that is information I would be interested in learning more about (ie, the long term risks and ramifications of forgoing standard MS treatments).
I do want to share an interview one of our contributors did with Dr. Terry Wahls. If you haven't heard of him, just typing his name into a search engine will bring up plenty of information for you. I am not endorsing or disavowing his approach, but I wanted to share the interview with you, regardless -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/interview-dr-terry-wahls-paleo-principles-functional-medicine-adopting-healthy-behaviors. He does claim he healed his MS with a radical dietary/lifestyle change. Some individuals swear by his protocol, while others have not found it as successful for them.
Here's a piece from one of our contributors about natural options that actually worked for her -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/natural-remedy-symptoms.
Lastly, I wanted to share this piece by one of our contributors about the treatment burnout people with MS can experience -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/doctor-doubts. I hope these resources are helpful for you and I really hope you get some feedback from other community members, as I know your feelings and questions are common and many people can relate.
Best, Erin, MultipleSclerosis.net Team Member.
