Star Birth #2 @ 2014 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

It’s Okay to Talk About It

In recent memory, as the saying goes, my experience has been higher than usual levels of chronic fatigue associated with my Sjogren’s. In the early years of my illness, I believed I successfully pushed through these times, and just disregarded the 3-hour naps aka crashes that would happen after a

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After Munch #2 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Mental health challenges

Talking Isn’t Enough

I took part in a Twitter chat last night that debated the seemingly obvious impact of physical health issues on mental health issues, and vice versa. I say obvious, because it was obvious to everyone there. Unfortunately, the audience consisted of mental health professionals and mental health services consumers. As we confirmed

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Struggling © 2014 Jane Waterman
Mental health challenges

Love Your Depression

If any other person said “love your depression” to me, I probably wouldn’t talk to them much longer. However, when my counsellor says “love your depression”, I know it’s not some positive thinking message she’s trying to whitewash this crippling pain with. She’s inviting me to think about things in

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First Snow © 2012 Jane Waterman
Mental health challenges

Cracking

It’s been less than two days since my counsellor and Mrs Blackbird both agreed that I need to take a month’s stress leave to buffer my depression, but I already feel like the ice beneath the fine powder of yesterday’s first snow – cracking. Having to take ‘stress leave’ is

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Spectres @ 2013 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

Breakdown

After so many years of battling with depression, it shouldn’t fail to surprise me that I can be so horribly wrong about its power and the lies it tells. I’d like to think that after so many years of fighting the good fight, I’d achieved some kind of mastery over

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After Munch #3 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Mental health challenges

Taking Stock of Depression

I didn’t want to be here right now. After a year and a half of hell of dealing with a mental illness that wasn’t my own and dealing with the aftermath of that; of trying to get my abdominal pain resolved once and for all and getting partial resolution (which

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Pain Study © 2013 Jane Waterman
Mental health challenges

Grasping for Answers

I have mentally begun this post for weeks, but a chronically ill life has a way of shaking loose any idea of control over one’s destiny. Anyone who has been ill for a while will understand what I mean when I say I’m suffering a bad case of doctor fatigue.

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Behind Glass © 2003 Jane Waterman
Invisible illnesses

Introduction to Sjogren’s Syndrome and Depression

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 2 #HAWMC – Introduce your condition(s) to other Health Activists. What are 5 things you want them to know about your condition/your activism? Sjogren’s Syndrome – Like me, you may have never have heard of it before you or a

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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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A Storm Comes © 2011 Jane Waterman
Invisible illnesses

Depression is a Physical Illness

A quandry for any writer, not just a blogger, arises at those times when to tell your story means to risk betraying a confidence, either that of a loved one or a villain. The former, you wish to protect with all your heart; the latter, to avoid, if only to

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