I have been thinking lately about how I cope when things go wrong and find the most common mechanism I use is to spin it. I look at what happened and turn it into a positive, no matter how small that positive appears. When my husband took a fall earlier this year, my spin was at least he didn’t break anything. If I can find a positive note and maybe even a smile (however fake and ironic) before continuing my day, it helps me stay focused on his care.

My spin philosophy extends to the extra household duties I have picked up thanks to his diagnosis as well. When things go wrong around the house, I simply remind myself that at least I have a roof over my head. Or, I can remember a couple of past disasters and remind myself that no trees have fallen on us. There’s always the old reliable, I don’t have to do it myself, I can call a repairman when things happen that are beyond my skill level. That works really well to improve my mood.

Putting a positive spin on things doesn’t mean letting go of the realities of my situation, it simply means finding a way to cope with challenges I face so they don’t impede my ability to function. I think of it as laughing in the face of my husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and am encouraged to keep going. Life as a CarePartner is always going to bring difficulties, hopefully I will find a way to face them all with a smile.