Both the good news and the bad news about Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome (MCS) is this… ‘Avoidance is the Key’.

 

The bad part of ‘Avoidance is the Key’ is, at this point, there is no cure for MCS.  The vast majority of us will most likely not - just get better over time.  The phrase ‘You can’t turn a pickle back into a cucumber’ that is often used in the  addiction/alcoholism recovery community seems to hold true for us also, once we cross that line into MCS there is no going back.

 

The good news portion of ‘Avoidance is the Key’ is that we can make many choices that will improve our lives.  Since MCS reactions are triggered by being exposed to some form of environmental toxicity, the number one thing we can all do is to minimize these exposures.  We can choose healthy versions of the clothing we wear, the personal care products we put on our bodies, how we care for the cars we drive, and many more aspects of our environments. 

 

Of course we can not manage everything around us.  There will be times when we will be exposed to one of our MCS triggers and we will have a reaction.  This is an aspect of living with MCS that we can not change.   What we can change are our strategies for living with MCS.  With the proper strategies we can minimize our exposure to environmental challenges and reduce the severity of our reactions to them.

 

At first glance ‘Avoidance is the Key’ may seem almost too obvious.  Of course if exposure to something causes me to feel poorly then I should attempt to avoid being exposed.  Those of us with MCS know that doing this is not always as easy as it sounds.  I have found from experience that doing everything I can to avoid exposure from all sources can also have a secondary benefit.  It can assist in lessening the severity of the symptoms of the next unexpected exposure.