This is something I wrote Way back in the day. I thought I would share it. It is a philosophical look at the pain experience. Drew Leder in "The Absent Body" (1990) has some interesting insight to the lived experience of pain. According to Leder, normally the body is experienced as an absence, in a … Continue reading Phenomenology of pain
Chronic illness: Mood, happiness, and life satisfaction
What I don't like is this 'pursuit of happiness' as an ultimate life goal. It is flawed in design. It is like utopia... it doesn't exist. You will never find it and the quest will make you dissatisfied and miserable. And yet, it is something in our culture we seem to think is perfectly normal. … Continue reading Chronic illness: Mood, happiness, and life satisfaction
Chronic illness: Resiliency
How do you bounce back from downturns or chaos? Do you bounce back easily? Or do you have difficulty with it? Some minor stresses we can just bounce back from quite well but with chronic illness, we have a lot of stress, mental, emotion, and physical. Our health ebbs and flows and there are some … Continue reading Chronic illness: Resiliency
Thursday Thoughts: Things I can’t explain about pain
We are coming up on the end of Pain Month. And pain month it was indeed for those of us with chronic pain. But it is a month to spread awareness about chronic pain. But here are somethings I feel like I can't really explain: I can't explain non-function intolerable pain to someone who has … Continue reading Thursday Thoughts: Things I can’t explain about pain
Bubble world
Chronic pain is a world. It profoundly affects our perception of self and reality. It affects us mentally, physically and emotionally. It can break us and make us, and quite frankly, do both. It is suffering and perseverance. It is coping and not coping at all. In this world we have to understand it is … Continue reading Bubble world
Chronic illness: Living in a backwards world
One thing I have learned living with a chronic illness is that it is perceived as a weakness. Often as something you should be able to 'control'. Often as something you should try to 'cure'. Often as something you should have been able to 'prevent' and it is somehow your fault that you are ill, … Continue reading Chronic illness: Living in a backwards world
