💪I create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
🤫The quiet cost of hiding your chronic illness.
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Hi Reader, When someone asks how you've been, how much of your answer is edited? I don't mean lying. I mean the quick pass most of us run before we speak: this version for a coworker, that one for the in-laws, the real one for the two or three people who've seen us on a bad day. That editing takes energy, and it's energy we were already short on. I rewrote an older post about chronic illness and identity to get at this. It covers why "don't let your illness define you" can make things heavier, what hiding actually costs, and how to be more open without turning every conversation into a medical history. You don't have to be inspiring to do it, either. That part matters to me. |
April Smith | The Thriving Spoonie
💪I create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
Hi Reader, When I was diagnosed with a chronic illness, the medical side came with a plan. The emotional side didn't. Nobody handed me a list for what to do with the fear, or the grief over things I could no longer do, or the quiet guilt about being a burden. I had to sort that out slowly. I just updated a post about exactly that. It covers how I separated the uncertainty I couldn't control from the small things I could, why asking for help was so hard for me at the start, and what...
Hi Reader, Recently I told you that my IIH diagnosis turned out not to be the main thing going on. I couldn’t fit the whole story into that email, so I wrote it all out. The post covers how I found out, what the grief has been like and what I’m sorting through now. It also explains what’s changing here on the site. My About page and many older posts still mention IIH. Those posts aren’t going anywhere, and I’ll be linking them back to this one so you can see the whole story. Read the post:...
Hi Reader, On my worst flare days, my hygiene routine is three things: a wipe-down with sensitive-skin wipes, mouthwash when brushing is too much, and clean underwear. Some days I need help even with those. For a long time I thought that didn’t count. Hygiene meant the full routine, and anything less meant I was failing at it. Chronic illness took that idea apart, and what replaced it has made my hardest days a lot more manageable. In this week’s post, I’m sharing how I scale my routine down...