Tattered © 2003 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

If it Looks Like Sjogren’s and Feels Like Sjogren’s, then?

When I was diagnosed with primary Sjogren’s Syndrome by Dr A-, some 12 years after I first became ill in 1990, I was relieved to have a name for the invisible illness that had wracked my life with its silent misery. However, there was one part of the diagnosis that

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Lake Mercuris © 2001 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Thoughts from the Front Lines of Depression

As a long-time sufferer with depression, I can unreservedly say that helping care for a loved one in acute depression challenges everything you know and have come to understand and believe about the illness. Above all, I find my thoughts coming back to the same things. Depression is not a boogeyman.

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Blessings of the Season
Living with invisible illness

On a New Year’s Eve

I don’t think I’ve ever written a year’s review post, much less a resolution post, and I’m still not writing one. 2012 was a difficult year. Not the most difficult I’ve ever experienced, but difficult. During 2012, I learned that I still can be stunned and shattered by the events

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You say Flu, I Say Flare
Living with invisible illness

You Say Flu, I Say Flare

Day 26 – Make a chart/meme/poster and write about it Simon and Garfunkel once sang there must be ’50 Ways to Leave Your Lover’. I’m no expert on breaking up, but I suspect there must be at least 50 ways to explain you’re in a flare to someone who doesn’t

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Hanging Gardens © 2003 Jane Waterman
Healing toolkit

Unexpected Growth Through Invisible Illness

Day 22 – Write about change In a recent post, I talked about invisible illness and the process of subtraction: how illness whittles away at one’s health, work life, family, relationships/connections, and more. However, not all changes related to invisible illness are bad. I’m going to highlight some of the

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Immunity © 1994 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

Questions for People with Sjogren’s Syndrome

Day 19 – Questions I have for other patients I suspect this is one of those really important posts where there are actually lots of questions, but I’m too brain-foggy to remember them all. So I’m going to post a few questions, and give myself permission to come back to

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After Munch #12 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

It’s Lonely Out Here

Day 15 – Nominate someone for a Health Activist Award bit.ly/haawards12 & write a post about why you nominated them! If I could, I’d nominate everyone who has ever spoken about their experiences with a chronic illness to anyone who would listen. This includes those who continue to write although

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After Munch #4 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Working (or Not Working) With an Invisible Illness

Day 14 – My own prompt for today: ‘Talk about the issues involved in working (or not working) with an invisible illness. Is it possible to find a life-work balance with a chronic invisible illness?’ Note: These problems aren’t unique to people with invisible illnesses. However, this is my area

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In the Shadow Lands
Living with invisible illness

Janet Frame – An Angel at My Table

Day 13 – Book report. What’s your favourite book and how can you tie it to your health or life? “I inhabited a territory of loneliness which resembles the place where the dying spend their time before death, and from where those who do return, living, to the world bring,

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After Charlotte © 2012 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

I Don’t Want to Think Positive

Day 12 – Call bullsh*t on something. What’s something that is just ridiculous? There are lots of things I could call bullsh*t on in terms of the treatments and attitudes concerned with depression, but I’d like to focus on something more fundamental. Why is it socially unacceptable to feel sad?

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