No, for many of us it is even worse than we let on here sometimes. I am very sorry that some new members or prospective members might be scared by what they read, but one of the best featurs of this forum is that we are all allowed to speak our mind about how this wretched disease makes us feel. It would be impossible for me to ever candy-coat what the illness does to me, what the pain does to me, and besides, saying anything other than what I feel would be lying, and I won't do that. Period. I understand nobody is asking us to tone down our posts--that's not what I am saying here. I am just saying that, in any medical forum, there will be things to read that will absolutely scare someone who has just been diagnosed. There will also be hundreds or thousands of messages like this original post that are full of hope and optimism. Anyone coming here for the first time needs to understand that, as is almost always true, the truth lies somewhere in the middle, between the agony and the ecstasy. As i've explained lately, right now the agony rules my life 24/7, and there is no way I can think that away. When I am feeling better, folks here know I write some beautifully optim istic posts and that humor is the primary emotion (is it an emotion? feeling? Que?) in my life and that I fall back on it whenever i can. right now, nothi8ng in my life is funny or optimistic, and if that is hard for new folks to read, all I can say is that it is possible that ANY medical forum will be too intensefor them as they try to sort through the frightening feelings that can be overwhelming when diagnosed with a chron ic disease.

brad