After Vincent #5 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Activist Love

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 14 #HAWMC – Thank a few of your fellow Health Activists for what they have done. Call them out by name or twitter handle. Share your love. I concur with many of my fellow health activists, and as I

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Love © 2002 Carmen Waterman
Invisible illnesses

Guest Post: Caregiving 101

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 9 #HAWMC – As a parent with health conditions or parent to a child(ren) with health conditions, what do you hope you’re doing right? Today I’m thrilled to present the first guest blog post on Blackbird at Night, written

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Invisible illnesses

Canary In A Coal Mine

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 8 #HAWMC – If your health condition (or the health condition of a loved one!) was an animal, what would it be? Is it a real animal or make believe? If either Sjogren’s or depression were an animal, I

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Namaste © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Sister, Can You Spare A Dream?

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 5 #HAWMC – If I could do anything as a Health Activist… Think big today! Money/time/physical limitations are no longer an issue. What is your biggest goal that is now possible? Today I woke up on the realist

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Invisible #1 © 2013 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Wordless Wednesday #1

I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 3 #HAWMC – Wordless Wednesday #1 – Post a picture that symbolizes your condition and your experiences.

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Immunity © 1994 Jane Waterman
Invisible illnesses

Fatigue and Invisible Illness

There are many types of fatigue, some of which are unknown to those who have never experienced a chronic invisible illness. The first kind is the result of physical exertion, which generally leads to an almost pleasant tiredness, as it is often accompanied by the knowledge of a job well

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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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Dreamtime © 1994 Jane Waterman
Creativity

Depression and Creative Dreams

I wrote a little the other day about my daughter, A-, who was diagnosed this year with bipolar, and is currently battling a severe case of winter depression. This morning she came to me and said, “I wish I was still manic, like I was in the summer.” I asked why

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Nothing Like The Sun © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Once More, with Feeling

Day 30 – Recap National Health Blog Post Month Sitting here in the last hours of November 30, I feel a lot of things. I hope it wouldn’t be too obvious to say that one is an intense feeling of relief. It’s been a real roller coaster, with a couple

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