OzMS - Multiple Sclerosis Peer Support

Multiple Sclerosis (known simply as MS) is a neurological disorder of the central nervous system of unknown cause in which the body's immune system attacks myelin in the brain and spinal cord. Whether the disease manifests in repeated episodes of inflammation or as a chronic condition, it results in multiple scars, or scleroses, on the myelin sheath, leading to impairment or loss of nerve function, this is a very brief definition!

Approximately 18,000 Australians Suffer from MS ! Multiple Sclerosis is usually diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50 ! Multiple Sclerosis affects twice as many women than men!

Links you need to click on and read, this is very important!

Registering : Failed Registrations! : Rules and Guidelines

If you have any problems please make sure you read the above page links carefully. 99% of people have no problems signing up and don't need to read the relevant links above. If you have problems you may need to.

Our Mission - Peer Support - Information - Freedom

This site endeavours to help People with MS through online peer support, members helping each other, we have MS, we know what you're going through, we live it each day. We offer many ways for you to contribute to the information on this site, information that you can't get out of a text book, information that only people that suffer from this disease can honestly give you, for example, symptoms and how you feel, is this normal, is often asked.

Of course we also do our best to provide the technical information as well, obviously we are not GPs or Neurologists, so please always consult your GP - Neurologist or the Australian Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS Society) before undertaking any treatment that other people with MS recommend, its only logical! We are not affiliated with any MS drug company or the MS Society, so, as people that suffer from MS, we will not push you into any of the treatments merely provide information from a sufferers perspective on what works and what doesn't for each person, we are all different, we all have a story to tell, we have a right to express an opinion from our own perspective!

This is a brief guide of the Main features of OzMS

Profiles

Please fill out the Multiple Sclerosis fields in your Profile, the community is about Multiple Sclerosis and the people who have Multiple Sclerosis, the MS fields of the profiles are visible to other members only and searchable by other members only, so please adjust your profile!

Forum

The forum is the most visited feature on OzMS, the "hits" (visits) to the forum prove this. Therefore if you want to ask a question and receive an answer this is where you should post your question or if you want to discuss something your post should be placed here!

Blog

Everybody should know what a blog is by now, if you don't, read on. The blog is for members to basically make a statement, although there is a place for comments, it's not the place to have a discussion. Blogs are primarily used to make statements about your life and what's going on, questions will have less likelyhood of being answered here.

What can I do?

OzMS is a community of people who suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, like any community, if it is to grow and remain relevant, we need people who are willing to participate. It can not continue to be left to a few, we need all members to participate, in whatever way they can, from simply welcoming new members when they have made their first post or to starting a topic of Discussion and replying to topics posted by others, we all have a viewpoint and it is interesting to hear these. Even if you think, well, there is no need for me to post a reply, because others already have said what I was going to say, you would be wrong, quite often people are seeking reassurance, it's much better to hear multiple replies than it is to read just a few or one.

If you have asked a question or started a discussion and others have taken the time to reply, please consider that the next time someone has a question, please reciprocate, it's what makes a community thrive, simple as that. If no one participates, the OzMS Peer Support Communtiy will cease to exist, so please, do the right thing and participate. I have come to the conclusion there are two types of Community members, on all forums not just OzMS, there are "givers" and "takers", givers are the life blood of communities, takers really offer nothing apart from hits to the site, which is great, but not what a community is really about, it's about PARTICIPATION.

The simplest things we do, are quite often the most important!

"If you want OzMS to continue please consider the text above, people work behind the scenes and constantly answer questions, it is very disheartening when we are the few, that always do!"