Dealing with the Discouraging Circumstances of Chemical Sensitivity

The illness of chemical sensitivity can present some very difficult circumstances. The following are examples of some of the challenging circumstances a person with chemical sensitivity may face:

• The symptoms of the illness can be painful by themselves.
• Family, friends, and others, including doctors, may believe the sufferer is malingering or has psychological problems.
• A person that is chemically sensitive to the touch may not be able to touch anything or anyone.
• The illness often requires people to live relatively isolated lives.
• Chemical sensitivity may cause conflict in a family, as family members may want to use products or do other things that cause the chemically sensitive individual to suffer.
• The sufferer may not be able to work, which can cause financial difficulties.
• According to the book Strategies for Surviving Chemical Sensitivity, the basics (2010), by Dr. Robert Mayer, divorce is common where a spouse contracts chemical sensitivity.
• A person with chemical sensitivity may have difficulty and stress related to finding food she can eat, clothes she can wear, and a place to live that does not make her sick.

    The following quotes have helped me deal with the difficult circumstances of chemical sensitivity:

Every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better. . . . My declaration is that this is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us, especially in times of need. There is help. There is happiness. . . . Don’t give up . . . . Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. . . . . It will be all right in the end. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.

Jeffrey R. Holland, “An High Priest of Good Things to Come,” Ensign, Nov 1999.

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.
It all works out. Don’t worry.
I say that to myself every morning.
It will all work out.
Put your trust in God,
and move forward with faith
and confidence in the future.
The Lord will not forsake us.
He will not forsake us.
If we will put our trust in Him,
if we will pray to Him,
if we will live worthy of His blessings,
He will hear our prayers.

From the funeral program for Marjorie Pay Hinckley, April 10, 2004; see also “Latter-day Counsel,” Ensign, Oct. 2000, 73. (available here)

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.

Orson F. Whitney, in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle (1972), 98.