#7 - How are you doing?

"How are you doing?" "How are you?" "How're you doing" Or in the famous words of Joey Tribbiani, "How YOU doin?"  No matter how one says it, it is a question that often gets overlooked. It's more of a greeting than a thought provoking question. So Carnival #7 is tackling this question.  We are delving deep to discover what secrets hide behind the standard answer, "I'm fine."

Alicia from Chiari-Life is Finally Answering Truthfully and she, also, shares the writing of Carolyn Gibbons on her blog post.

April from Zipperheads shares the hard truths about family life with Chiari in her post How Am I Doing.

Adrianne from Living with ACM1 shares her challenges when working and blogging at How Are You.

Carolyn Gibbons from Chiari Type 1 Malformation is welcomed back to the Carnival and shares her personal strength with us in her post One Day, I Will Be Fine.

Shalunya from Shalunya and Boyet asks us to not judge her based on her unspoken thoughts in her post How Are You.

Living with Chiari is challenging for those of us living with this disease.  There is no question about that but the question is how much do we share when being asked, "How are you?"  We walk a fine line between reassuring our loved ones and being honest about what we experience.  We don't want to be perceived as whiners, but sometimes getting through a day can be very difficult.  When we are completely honest about what we experience it can be overwhelming for our loved ones to hear.  We realize that those closest to us already sacrifice for us and we don't want to add any burdens to them.  But sometimes, finally answering truthfully is needed to reassure ourselves that we aren't crazy, to remind ourselves that negative thoughts are typical, to allow ourselves the freedom of speaking our minds, or to cleans ourselves of just a few of the challenges this condition can bring.

Since September is Chiari Awareness Month, we encourage all of our readers to spread awareness for our condition.  Tell at least one person per day, per week or even just one person this month about Arnold Chiari Malformation.  Use the hash tag of #ChiariAwareness as much as you possibly can this month on any form of social media.

And give yourself the freedom to answer this question honestly, "How are you doing?"  Please post your answers as comments below, on our Facebook page Chiari Carnival, or tweet your answer to @ChiariCarnival on Twitter.