Happy Girl Winter: How to Overcome Seasonal Depressive Disorder
‘You Can Still Do What You Love’: Learning to Adjust to Life with an Early-Onset Arthritis Diagnosis
Early-onset arthritis, at 37? Really? Apparently, this can be quite common for teenagers, young adults or people who are in their 30s, but I have never heard anyone in my age group or younger speaking about this subject matter. This silence, I think, was part of the reason why I was in complete denial and shock about my new diagnosis...
‘Progress is an Irregular Path’: Chronic Fatigue and Learning to Live Life Slowly
Does all of this sound boring and repetitive? That's exactly how it feels for me. This repetitive cycle has been draining my youth one day at a time and I feel like I've missed out on a lot of my younger years already. Friends and acquaintances from school and university appear to have interesting lives; I feel like a failure. However, they may be feeling the same – social media doesn't show the whole picture of people's lives…
‘Grief Comes with Any Long-Term Chronic Illness’: Learning to Slow Down and Live with Autoimmune Disease
I started referring to my time in London as ‘B.C’: before colitis and ‘A.D’: after diagnosis. I mourned for my new life. It was a double-edged sword; I realised that despite my intentions, I practised ableism by default as I’d never had to consider life through the lens of someone chronically ill. I also felt like I didn’t have a right to complain because my invisible illness didn’t totally inhibit my ability to work, socialise and retain my autonomy. I was still deemed ‘productive’ under our capitalist regime…
‘Chronic Pain Does Not Acknowledge Deadlines’: Work-Life Balance and Redefining Success To Accommodate Illness and Disability
Perhaps to truly succeed is not to consistently over-achieve and triumph without consequence, but to flourish and nurture all aspects of your life. To continue to grow and challenge yourself, but at your own pace, and in competition with no one but yourself. Societal comprehensions of productivity and achievement are deeply rooted in able-bodied normativity. It demands consistency and a persistent upward trajectory, which, when you have a chronic illness, is scarcely attainable…
‘It Was a Contained Habit’: Marijuana, Chronic Illness and the Risks of Self-Medicating
I never thought of using marijuana to ease my pain – my doctor suggested it. He informed me that many people who suffer from IBS use it to relax from the stress of their illness. I was desperate, and having previously enjoyed smoking pot, I had nothing to lose…