Rheumatoid Arthritis Is Not a Competition: Why the Urge to Compare Hurts Us All
Comparison and competition with chronic illness gets us tangled up in stress and sadness. In my latest article for CreakyJoints Canada, I share my thoughts on this, as well as four ways to start learning how to unlearn the urge and find acceptance in your own rheumatoid arthritis reality: “Comparing yourself to someone else seems…
I Tried Light Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder
It arrived like clockwork the second week of February. I’ve had Seasonal Affective Disorder for as long as I can remember, as do several other people in my family. This year’s was a humdinger. I started isolating (remember this was before COVID-19), the world lost its colours, I got really sad, and writing became extremely…
9 Quotes That Inspire Me When the Struggle Gets Too Real
We all have when you wake up to discover that everything has chosen this exact moment to fall apart: your chronic illness has flared, your pain is out of control, the cat puked in your shoes, and brain fog is making it impossible to think. For instance. And sometimes, we have several days like that…
From Helplessness to Hope with Chronic Illness: 5 Strategies to Push Back Depression
I had a rough entry into the holidays. The fates conspired to send me a number of events over which I had little control. On top of already existing stress, plus having slammed it into overdrive to prepare for the holidays, my body (and mind) had had enough. So I got sick. Or rather, I…
How Mental Health Resources Can Help You Live Better With RA
RA affects your physical health, but also your mental and emotional health. In one of my new articles for HealthCentral, I took a look at the mental health resources that can help you heal and move forward: “Living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not easy. Adapting to the repeated changes and losses that can accompany…
Thoughts of Suicide and RA
Chronic illness and depression go hand-in-hand and so it is with RA. According to Johns Hopkins, chronic pain exacerbates depression and from an intellectual standpoint, it’s not surprising that some of those people who are depressed consider suicide. And some do more than consider. But this is not an intellectual post that delves into the…
Calamity Jane Not So Calamitous: My Ongoing Biologics Miracle
Updated May 5, 2021 When your life seems out-of-control, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and every day disasters combining to create chaos, sometimes all it takes is one moment to bring you out of it. A brief synopsis: it started with my phone crapping out, bringing with it a sort of domino effect of calamities worthy of…