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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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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Loss @ 2013 Jane Waterman
Interior life

Illness and Loss

The main symptom of the disaster was the kitchen. For the past four weeks, supplies from the constantly aborted deck painting project mingled with dirty dishes, even though not much food was eaten. Food was a source of rough comfort when remembered: an accompaniment to the usual pain pills, and

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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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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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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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Early Light #2 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Why I Write About My Health

Introduction During November, I’m writing a series of posts for National Health Blog Post Month. The event is organized by WEGO Health, a great organization that brings together health activists from around the world. What’s a health activist you might ask? A health activist is, not surprising, typically a person

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Dark Forest © 2012 Jane Waterman
Invisible illness advocacy

Mental Illness Research is Failing Us

World Mental Health Day is just passed, and with it, the calls for heightened awareness of the issues concerned with, ironically, mental illness. While it is gratifying to me as a long-term sufferer to see awareness raising all the time, and advocates stepping out (particularly in groups often reluctant to

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Alone In The Universe #2 © 2012 Jane Waterman
Living with invisible illness

Compassion for my Younger Self #3

Our parents can’t save us, no matter how much we wish they had, or could. When I was 27, I descended into madness. It didn’t begin then. That process began so many years before, perhaps when I was born: the same and yet so different. There were stages to this

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