Living successfully with sickle cell anemia means staying alive for as long as possible, and living that life to the fullest. Out of personal experience, I have identified the important role of two types of acceptance in surviving the disease.

Positive acceptance means accepting the diagnosis you have received, including the fact that sickle cell anemia is currently incurable. Many sufferers and their parents waste precious time and energy challenging the diagnosis, or looking for a cure through questionable treatment regimens. This denial diverts energy and resources away from the more important task of coming to terms with the disease.

A diagnosis of sickle cell anemia is scientifically based. Accepting the diagnosis as reality helps you get down to the business of coping with the disease, instead of getting distracted into expensive and unsuccessful attempts at altering an inevitable situation. At this moment in time, there is no proven way to overturn a diagnosis of sickle cell anemia. Period.

Negative acceptance works to the detriment of the sufferer. This is when the sufferer or their parents carry acceptance to the opposite extreme. Negative acceptance means accepting the condition inevitably leads to an early death, or to handicap, or that one cannot lead a useful life if one suffers from sickle cell anemia. Negative acceptance translates into capitulating to the disease.

The healthiest psychological balance involving acceptance is to accept the diagnosis but to challenge all other parameters, because these are flexible depending on how you manage the condition.

In other words, the fact that you have sickle cell anemia is non-negotiable. Accept this fact and move on. But do not accept that you will have to die early, or end up crippled, or that you cannot have a productive life, because all these outcomes lie in your own hands. You can make the best of your diagnosis if you manage your condition wisely and knowledgeably.

If you treat infection consistently, drink a lot of water in order to increase your blood volume, take all your medicine, strengthen your immune system, engage in a meaningful occupation, cultivate a thriving social and emotional network and pursue some higher goals in life, there is nothing to stop you eventually dying of ripe old age instead of dying of sickle cell anemia.

Do not accept anything less.

While the huge advances in science and medicine have not yet led to a cure for sickle cell anemia, they have produced a plethora of methods to manage the disease, with the result that more and more sicklers are outstripping the accepted life expectancy, while living happy and satisfying lives.