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Showing posts from January, 2017

Strategies for Surviving Celebrations (and Daily Life) with Chronic Illness

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Chronic Christmas isn’t just for the holidays. Why am I banging on about that book again and well into January? There’s a very good reason. Namely that the strategies I described in Chronic Christmas: Surviving the Holidays with a Chronic Illness can be used throughout the year to help you tackle tasks and celebrations with enough energy left over to enjoy your life. We all have energy-sucking events and tasks in our lives. They can range from doing routine household chores to planning a big celebration, such as a family party or a wedding. When you have a chronic illness, approaching any of them can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? Will you have enough energy to see the task through? It’s enough to make anyone hide under the covers. But you don’t have to. That is, you can hide under the covers if you wish, but that doesn’t get anything done. And more importantly, it keeps you from enjoying life. So why not take a look at the Chronic Christmas tips and strateg

4 Techniques to Quit Smoking for Good

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One common New Year's resolution is to quit smoking. If you've made a promise to yourself and your family to kick the habit, my new post for Mango Health could be just  what you need to quit and quit for good: "I smoked my first cigarette at 17. It made me feel nauseated, so I’m not sure why I had a second one, but I did — and that was the start of my addiction.  I’ve since quit twice. The first time, I lasted four years before the siren song of nicotine lured me back. It took a long time before I gathered the courage to stop again. It wasn’t just that I was afraid to quit; I didn’t quit because, the truth is, I liked smoking. Let’s face it: if we didn’t like smoking, we wouldn’t waste money on a product that’s lit on fire and burned to a pile of ash multiple times a day." You can read the story of how I finally quit and four techniques that can help you stop smoking on the Mango Health blog.  

Photo Friday: Sharp Angles

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Chronic Christmas and the e-book Cover Design Awards

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There are many reasons I love Chronic Christmas. Working on it help me find my writing mojo again, I had a lot of fun  with it, both to creating it and talking to others about it in the months leading up to the holidays. I also very much love to cover. When Aimee Coveney of Other Design Solutions sent the first draft to me, I found myself saying "I love it ! " out loud even though there were no one else in the room. Well, except for Lucy, but she was sleeping at the time. wwith only one minor change, that first draft was the final draft So naturally I submitted it to The Book Designer's e-book Cover Design Awards for the month of December 2016. And it got a gold star! That means it was "considered for the award or ... stood out in some exemplary way." And this is just one more reason to love my little book.  

Let’s Talk: Arthritis and Mental Health and Well-Being

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People who live with arthritis experience anxiety and depression at a higher rate than the general population. [1] I am one of those people, both in terms of the arthritis and the mental health issues. Over my 50-year “career” with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) I have spent a lot of time feeling depressed. Like the 30% of the people with RA who are depressed , I have also thought of suicide. Living with high levels of chronic pain and progressive disability can really do a number on your head. I am happy to say that I haven’t been depressed in a really long time. In fact, I’ve been feeling really good from a mental health perspective. And then there was that sidetrack of a medical adventure last Spring that is now reacquainting me with anxiety and has introduced me to life with PTSD . It’s always something… Mental health and physical health cannot be separated. They exist together and it is important to pay attention to both of them, especially when you live with a chron

Photo Friday: Path

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  I've been taking part in the Fat Mum Slim January photo challenge and particularly liked this one from the 14th. Follow my almost-daily photos on my Instagram account and Facebook page .    

6 Tips on How to Have a Chronic Illness on Social Media

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Are you on social media? Of course you’re on social media; everyone is these days. But if you have a chronic illness, be careful not to post photos of you spending time with people you like, or even smiling. If you do, it could get your disability claim rejected. Kayla Barry knows this firsthand. A few weeks ago, she shared the rejection letter for her disability claim . In it, the doctor assessing the claim stated that the photos shared on her Twitter account showed a “young woman who is engaged in life activities, awake, smiling and also do not appear to depict an individual who looks chronically ill.” Cue all of us having a meltdown. About the fact that the doctor does not appear to be aware of the concept of invisible illness, which is odd considering he was evaluating the disability claim for Barry’s fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, neither hardly visible. About the insanity of the doctor not realizing that we share our best moments on social media. And