You are welcome, Lemon, and thanks for your kind words. It is true that most of us have to give up things we don't want to give up. For me, it has been a fair bit of the physical activity that used to make me happy and healthy. I lifted weights for years and loved it. I tried for years to continue to do it .....trying it this way and that way and so on, and always came up against a wall no matter how carefully I went at it. It wasn't really the fibro that stopped me, but rather my wrists and hands, which couldn't take the weights any more due to carpel tunnel and arthritis in my hands. It was very hard at first to let that hobby go.
But the thing is, life is change.
Everything changes all the time. sometimes in ways we like and sometimes not. I have come to the solid conclusion that "survival of the fittest" really should say "survival of those who can adapt the best", and actually if you look at the evolutionary record on this planet, that has proven to be the truth, and may really be what was meant by that well known phrase. The tree that bends with the wind lives.
So a big part of my work with fibro has been remembering this and adapting my life, my expectations, my means of staying fit, my ways of finding joy, and so on, to what I am currently able to do on each given day. It is really all about accepting what is in this moment. It is really that struggle that you refer to that is causing the mental anguish. Once a person stops struggling against what is and accepts it and learns how to live well with it, that anguish disappears. And once that happens it is so much easier to be positive, or at the least not to be really negative, which then tends to lead to more good things.
Once I really got that into my system, it became so much easier, and I realized that mourning for the things I cannot do any more is like mourning for your youth when you age. There's really no point to it - you cannot change the facts and go backward in time. So, instead of making oneself miserable over getting older, the best adaptation is to find out how to enjoy being older. Those who do, have a good old age and those who don't are unhappy, and I bet we all have known both kinds.
I am not saying it is easy at all. But it is simple, and it can be done.
It's my wish that this forum can provide support and encouragement for people to find their own path to this acceptance and find their own peace as a result.