I’m choosing continuity, because MS doesn’t believe in new year resets

Every year, January arrives with a familiar script as we are expected to embrace a new year with a clean slate. It’s the season for resolutions and sweeping promises we make to ourselves, as if our bodies have simply been quietly waiting for permission to cooperate.

I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, and this year was no exception. I didn’t start the month with a list of goals. While the rest of the world was focused on reinvention, I was sitting in an infusion chair receiving my third dose of rituximab.

My body was carrying over last year’s events, which included a relapse. The IV pole beside me didn’t care what month it was, and neither did my immune system. Sadly, health doesn’t reset simply because a calendar does.

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No fresh starts

Living with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis has repeatedly taught me that my body doesn’t always respond well to deadlines, even if they’re disguised as motivation. New Year’s resolutions assume that capacity and capability are always constant; that energy will show up on cue, that discipline can overpower physiology, or that effort alone can determine an outcome.

For many people, that belief cracks a few weeks in, but for those of us living with chronic illness, I think it can break much sooner.

Painted tiles decorate the ceiling at an infusion center. (Photo by Ahna Crum)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) doesn’t recognize fresh starts. It moves forward in continuity. Symptoms don’t erase themselves at midnight on Dec. 31, fatigue doesn’t disappear when intentions are strong, and treatment schedules don’t always pause to let optimism catch up. When resolutions are too sweeping or rigid with all-or-nothing promises, daily checklists, or strict rules, the body often responds with resistance. That resistance is often considered failure. But I’ve learned it’s not failure. It’s communication from a body that’s begging to be heard.

As a registered dietitian, I counsel my patients on this every year, as dieting is a common New Year’s practice. Forming too restrictive or rigid diet goals right from the start are often hard to maintain long term and, after a while, it’s easy to fall off track. This can lead to feelings of guilt and the desire to once again start an overly restrictive dietary regimen to make up for getting off track. This propels on-and-off dieting and negative relationships with food.

I learned the need for flexible goals the hard way in my own personal health journey.

For a long time, as with every other obstacle in my life, I treated January like a test of willpower. If I could just set the right goals, stay disciplined enough, and prove myself capable enough, maybe my body would fall in line. Living with MS has slowly dismantled that belief. Of course, I still believe growth is possible, but I realize it doesn’t come from overriding reality.

Simply continuing

If I’m chasing anything this year, it isn’t a resolution; it’s perspective. It’s learning to value internal validation over external approval by listening to my body instead of negotiating with it. The goal is to trust what I know instead of what the season expects. It’s taken many new year starts that didn’t stick, goals that backfired, and moments when rest felt like failure simply because it wasn’t productive, to make that internal shift.

My biggest lesson learned last year was that MS has a way of forcing honesty. It strips away the illusion that effort alone can determine an outcome. Progress with MS instead can look like consistency, awareness, and commitment without urgency or punishment.

January tells us to start over. Chronic illness asks us to carry forward and bring what we’ve learned, what we’ve survived, and what our bodies are asking for into the next season without erasing ourselves in the process. Some years, that means fewer promises, less proving, and more listening.

There may not be a reset button on a nervous system. But my goal this year is to internalize less pressure to reset and more permission to simply continue.

Note: Multiple Sclerosis News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Multiple Sclerosis News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to multiple sclerosis.