Archive for category: Chronic Pain

A Lifelong Runner, Sidelined By Disability

Running has been the ribbon of continuity that has run through my life. Now it's been severed by disability, perhaps for good. What do I do now?
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My Problem Wasn’t My Size. It Was My Scoliosis.

Learning yoga made me stop blaming my weight and instead come to terms with my invisible disability.
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My Chronic Pain Was In My Head. But It Was Still Real.

The relationship between mind and body is complicated. Just because your pain is psychosomatic doesn't make you crazy.
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How Disability Made Hiking Better For Me

In what I used to view as the marathon of life, permission to ramble has been one of the greatest gifts disability has given me.
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Folks Video Story: Painting In Pain

"I don't like putting my pain in my work a lot," says painter Hertz Nazaire, who has Sickle Cell disease. "But it sneaks in there. It can't be helped."
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Helping My Son Escape The Migraine Curse

I often wonder how my childhood would have turned out if I'd better understood my migraines. Through my son, I can find out.
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The Stigma Of Fun When You’re Disabled

Why do so many people assume that just because I'm in too much pain to work, I shouldn't be allowed to do anything else?
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Hands As Big As Pillows, And Other Weird Migraine Symptoms

Aphasia, hallucinations, and synesthesia are all proof that there's more to a migraine than just a bad headache.
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I’m A Refugee Addicted To Painkillers In Canada

But when you have chronic pain and have to work 12 hours a day in a factory or else people back home starve, what's the alternative?
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Why I Lied To Friends About My Chronic Pain

When you lie about something like migraines out of shame, the lies keep stacking up until you've got a tower of them, ready to topple.
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When Mom Started Vaping, Her Chronic Pain Disappeared

My mother had given up on ever finding relief for her chronic fibromyalgia. Then her doctor prescribed medical marijuana, and everything changed.
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How Imaginary Light Soothes My Chronic Pain

I was skeptical that guided imagery could help my rheumatoid arthritis. I'm pleased to say I was wrong.
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