So many terrible things happen when you have a chronic illness. There are hours, sometimes even weeks and months, which go by before a calm spell hits. At that time, with the chaos of survival temporarily quieted, we have a chance to appreciate the lessons we learned during the bad days. Those small servings of good stuff can help us find reasons to push through and keep fighting. The primary lesson learned from dealing with a chronic illness is patience. It is inevitable. You can only push yourself so hard when your body is broken. Developing patience with yourself is…
For the bent, broken, and busted bodies in this world
Tagged mental health
Medical desperation
There are so many people with chronic and mysterious symptoms that the western world has developed show-and-tell entertainment around being sick. There are television shows, corporate websites, online series, and major news segments dedicated to showcasing all of our complications. Why do we engage with industries that make a profit off of our pain? Simple. We are desperate. With hundreds of thousands, even millions of people looking for cures to their long-term ailments, the appeal of sharing your problem with the world and getting a solution quickly is overwhelming. Maybe there is a doctor out there who is interested in…
Hospital PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is not exclusively a wartime condition. There are innumerable events that can cause the disorder. Personality traits and emotional leanings also contribute to the likelihood of developing PTSD. For centuries, trauma was treated as a momentary cut instead of a deep scar. Today, we realize that lifelong mental distress can be caused by even a single traumatic event. It may seem counterintuitive to claim that medical spaces and hospitals in particular can cause PTSD. Unfortunately, it is true. The process of recovering from a hospital visit is lengthy and multifaceted. Being out of control, having your…
I’m just a girl – Diagnosing part 1
I was 18 years old and living in the American south. It was a new adventure after moving to the U.S just a few years prior. Being eighteen and still adjusting to a new culture, my life was a combination of amazing and incredibly stressful. It was a time before social media. The Internet was not a daily thing, a much simpler time in that regard. That lack of access came with its benefits but also left a lot of us lacking easy access to quality information. About a year into my southern life, I began not feeling well. It…
It’s all in your head
Over these last few months, there have been a number of news and medical publications making the claim that past trauma is the cause of difficult and uncontrollable physical pain. This isn’t a new idea nor is it a conclusive proclamation of why all pain manifests. Of course, it is catchier for journalists to summarize the story using biased language instead of explaining the actual study breakdown in full. There is no definitive proof that historical trauma causes intractable pain and pain disorders. There is no way to accurately measure pain. This makes studying pain and its root causes very…
