Stories About

Chronic Pain

How I Learned to Soften My Pain and Give Vulvodynia a Break

While my gynecologists dismissed my experience, I spent years looking for relief from my constant irritation and pain.

How Living With Chronic Pain Is Like The Tidal Zone

Just like the tidal zone, there is a space between healthy and sick, and I am finally learning to be happy living here.

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Learning How To Support Black People From My Disability

As a person with lupus, I realized I needed to support BIPOC the same way I want the world to support me.

My Worst Nightmare—An Operation—Set Me Free

As a teenager with scoliosis, I was so terrified of surgery I spent years living in a brace. But my worst fear was the thing that eventually helped me learn to love my body.

Planned Parenthood Rules, Or How My Reproductive Health Diagnoses Freed Me from Sexual Shame

As a teenager experiencing painful periods, I was afraid of the stigma of going to Planned Parenthood. But doing so saved me from years of pain and shame.

This Chronically Ill Influencer Has A Camera… And A Cause

A professor who didn't believe her chronic pain put Gigi Robinson on a path to working with brands like Tommy Hilfiger to empower more people living with invisible illnesses like her.

What You Think Is Your Greatest Weakness Is Really Your Superpower

After learning to live with her psoriatic arthritis, television personality and entrepreneur Nitika Chopra has one simple message about chronic illness.

Migraines and COVID: How the Pandemic Taught Me That Canceling Plans Is Self-Care

Living with chronic migraines, I was always trying to keep pace with the outside world. But now, as the world does the same, I realize that it's okay to stay home to stay healthy.

The Skin Disease That Gave The World Socialism

“The bourgeoisie will remember my carbuncles until their dying day," Karl Marx once wrote. 150 years later, it's time to think about them again.

Black, Disabled, and Protesting In America

Ulcerative colitis may be incurable, but the same is not true of racism. That's why I fight.

Choosing Between Skiing And My Knees

I was in my 30s when I got new knees, but I needed them long before that. Here's what I learned.