Arthritic Artist

I am more than my diagnosis. Psoriasis, acid reflux, chronic Costochondritis, dyslexia, Chiari I malformation, IIH. Other blog: AerielDesigns

[arthriticartist]

Exhausted pigeon is the spirit animal of Spoonies

[my-feminism]

In the Netherlands, abortion is freely available on demand. Yet the Netherlands boasts the lowest abortion rate in the world, about 6 abortions per 1000 women per year, and the complication and death rates for abortion are miniscule. How do they do it? First of all, contraception is widely available and free — it’s covered by the national health insurance plan. Holland also carries out extensive public education on contraception, family planning, and sexuality. An ethic of personal responsibility for one’s sexual activity is strongly promoted. Of course, some people say that teaching kids about sex and contraception will only encourage them to have lots of sex. But Dutch teenagers tend to have less frequent sex, starting at an older age, than American teenagers, and the Dutch teenage pregnancy rate is 9 times lower than in the U.S.

[teratomarty]

I endorse evidence-based medicine, and evidence-based activism.

[arthriticartist]

The Netherlands do a lot of things right.

[appalachiananarchist]

I hate glamorizing over-working. It’s not healthy. The fact that there are so many people going without sleep, food, personal hygiene (not to mention time for relaxation, personal time, and socialization, which are very necessary for mental health) just to stay afloat is not something to be celebrated or applauded. It’s a problem, not a goal that all good employees should aspire to, or a norm everyone should be expected to perform.

[arthriticartist]

Hi everyone 🙂I was recently asked to do a piece for Everyday Health. I just wanted to share 🙂

[whatsuprubberduck]

Me: *runs outta spoons*

Narrator:  It was at this moment she knew….she forked up.

[buzzfeed]

The life of an artist, by @booksofadam

[arthriticartist]

Too true

[archive48]

financial advice: NEVER GET SICK.

[sillyassdisease]

The realest.

[sick-kids-are-cool]

“lets try to get you down to a 0 on the pain scale” lmao I like your enthusiasm buddy but have I got some news for you

[arthriticartist]

My doctor gave me that line recently. To Which I giggled and said "I'm so not that optimistic"

[creativeronica]

(via Invisible Illness Myth #1 - Infographic - Fruitful Today)

[arthriticartist]

Hi guys! I know I shared that I've been writing a patient blog for Creaky Joints, an arthritis patient association. This is a post I did a few months ago. It's been shared a few times and it's one of the topics that's been closest to my heart, so I wanted to share with all of you ❤️

[invisibleillnessweek]

We may believe most people around us are healthy. This week is Invisible Illness Awareness Week. Let us remember that we don’t see the man who slightly limps from his eighth surgery he had to remove tumors that keep returning; the teen who just came from an infusion for her Lyme disease; the woman at the bank who is transferring money to pay for her third eye surgery due to diabetes. Your words can hurt. Your words can heal. Let us be kind, for we never know the pain that we cannot see. #ThisIsChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness http://ift.tt/2dms40S

[chronically-illustrated]

The Invisible Illness Paradox: 

Desperately faking wellness so that people won’t get annoyed by your constant illness and inability to join in activities, but feeling deeply hurt when they don’t understand how sick you really are.

[ladydrace]

Has anyone else noticed how, when you have a chronic condition of some kind, that there’s always the basic assumption from people around you that you’re not already doing everything you can?

[thespooniepost]

Spoonies!

Take care of yourselves today. Listen to your body and don’t push yourselves too hard.

[chronically-illustrated]

How I visualize my chronic fatigue.

Pencil and watercolors on paper, July 2016

[heyyaandy]

Love this

[chronically-illustrated]

Thank you. It honestly helps so much to see that my experience is relatable, and I hope it has helped other people know they’re not alone in their struggles. The response to this post is why I decided to focus my tumblr more on my art depicting my experience of chronic illness (URL change from lavenderspoonie to chronically-illustrated). Thanks for your support, everyone!

[dragoninatardis]

One of the things that both chronically ill and non chronically ill people have to remember about chronic illness is: Recovery time is not free time. Sleep is not a hobby. You may have more hours in your life devoted to those things than others, but you can’t only take those hours out of what would otherwise be free time. It doesn’t matter if you just spent a lot of time sleeping or lying around with no spoons and in too much pain to sleep. It’s still important to spend time having fun, if you can. It’s still important to have actual free time, actual time off.

[elparaisodeborges-deactivated20]

Person:  But if you are like this at this age how are you gonna be when you are 60? !  !

Me: I have enough problems right now to worry about the ones in 40 years

[creativeronica]

Why do people say that? It’s not encouraging. It’s insensitive and hurtful.

[arthriticartist]

Plus chances are we've already thought about it and it terrifies us... So maybe don't continue use to terrify us on purpose...