How do you manage your RA pain without letting it control your life?

@Camremi  We can just live each day as best we can. I wake up each morning thinking I am going to do this and that but I am lucky i can do one thing. It takes me awhile to even get myself together. I am learning to live with the pain.  With my meds its not as bad as it was. Its dosen't ever completely go away at least for me. But their are better days. Between my RA & my OA. Each day I have back pain & sciatica pain with RA.  I can't walk far even with my cane. I have to stop and sit between every stage when I am cooking. You just have to plan you day out and do your best. It's a new way of living. 

Idk how I missed this discussion, but I relate to this feeling on a deep level. I was diagnosed before 30 I had (and still have) a hard time accepting it. For a while, especially early on, my pain and RA consumed everything I did. I couldn't escape it. I think with time and trial and error and finally finding the right combination of meds and habits I think I've gotten to a place where I feel like I exist apart from my RA. So I guess for me my answer would be through pushing on your doctor to find you meds that work for you, by not accepting to constantly live in pain, and then a bit of self-work. 

Anybody with a chronic pain disease knows how difficult it is to manage pain, and it really upsets me at times that society has adopted the same label for me as a drug addict just because Im not a superhero and need medicine that gives me a better quality of life.