Understanding invisible disabilities needs to begin with empathy.
But, sadly, empathy seems to be disappearing in our country.
Invisible Disabilities Week takes place from the 19th to the 25th of October this year. It’s a reminder that what people need is empathy, not ignorance; support, not suspicion; compassion; not cruelty.
Chronic pain affects every aspect of life—relationships, work, mental health, and finances. Despite its profound impact, many people are told to simply “learn to live with it.” But is that really the best advice? 43% of the UK Population Lives With Chronic Pain If you’re a regular reader of my…
A few weeks ago, I published a guest post by CK Harrington about living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease (CMTD). During our conversations, we discussed how important virtual support groups are. Support groups have always been helpful for anyone living with any chronic illness. However, physically travelling to a support group isn’t…
Life can be difficult for people who live with chronic pain or a chronic illness but it must also be difficult for friends and family who look on wishing that they could do more to help. How Can People Help Someone With Chronic Pain or Illness? Often, friends or family…
Have you ever considered blogging about your health? I’ve often said that writing about your health can be good for you. It can be therapeutic. But as well as helping yourself, blogging about your health can help other people too. I’ve got to know a lot of chronic illness bloggers over the last couple of years. Many of us write to support other sufferers, educate and create awareness about our various conditions.
I write about living with pain or illness all the time, but today I want to focus on a group of people who play a valuable role in the community – carers. To be specific, family carers. Many chronic illness sufferers rely on a family member to care for them. Very often, what that family member does, goes unnoticed. But it shouldn’t. We should all notice. Family carers need much more support and gratitude than they receive.
Some people might just need help with putting on their shoes, picking up groceries or making meals, but many people couldn’t function without their carers. Those family carers give their time and energy out of love. They give up so much in order to take care of a member of their family….
Pain is personal, isn’t it? Two people who live with the same condition experience it differently. That doesn’t stop them from understanding the pain they each live with. In support groups, people really do understand how the pain affects you. But do other people? Is it possible to help people understand the pain?
After I published this post this post to explain what trigeminal neuralgia feels like, someone told me that nobody understands the condition, so there’s no point in even trying to explain it.
A few years ago, while talking to my pain clinic doctor, I told him that I think online support groups are helpful and that I run one for trigeminal neuralgia sufferers. I asked him if they ever ran patient support groups within the clinic and was shocked when he told…
It can take a lot of courage to discuss health issues with friends and family, but sometimes people put their own health in the public spotlight to help others. This awareness is especially important when it comes to people who are living with a rare disease. When people are living…
Some illnesses are obvious to the naked eye. If someone is hobbling around with a plaster cast on their leg, we can tell they have a broken leg. If they have misshapen fingers, we can normally presume that they have painful arthritis. But so many people have health conditions that…
