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Tom O'Donnell--living with Parkinson's disease


I look at it this way. I have a disease that is very hard to explain. If I were to tell people how I actually feel, people might be very depressed. At this moment, every inch of my body is doing one thing or another. Why should I tell them that and bring them down? So why not say that I feel great instead? It’s a good ice-breaker, because everyone wants to know why I feel so great. Parkinson’s has helped me to take the blinders off. It allowed me to realize that there was more to life than how I was living at the time. My feeling of being immortal has ended. I have been humbled. I now understand that we can break. It made me realize that I was here for another reason––to speak and be a voice for those who cannot communicate because of Parkinson’s disease. If you get depressed, do something. Do whatever it takes to make you feel better. It is easier to handle Parkinson’s by doing things and keeping active than by sitting in a chair and being depressed. Never ever give up. Parkinson’s may steal your mind and your body––but it will never touch your heart and your soul. Quitting is the harder way out.