Tips and Tricks on How to be Sick

[sicktipsandtricks]

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This month we’re going to talk about some heavy stuff that a lot of us experience, especially during the holiday season: we’re going to talk with musician Amy McNally about ways she copes with depression and suicidal ideation, both with formal medical and psychological treatment and in ways she deals with it apart from that. Click through for links to resources on dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts. Musical excerpts copyright Amy McNally, used with permission.

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In honor of Dysautonomia Awareness Month, we’re going to discuss dysautonomia and the ways it can present in different people, both on its own and in conjunction with other disorders. What is dysautonomia, anyway? Well, it’s a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, which tells you nothing unless you know a little bit about how the autonomic nervous system functions and what it does in the body. So let’s take this in two parts – what the autonomic nervous system does, and what things happen when it doesn’t do its job correctly.

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What I would like to see is, at the same time that you’re going through rehab, that you’re getting constant reinforcement that it is OK to be a person with a disability or with an impairment.

It is not embarrassing to ask for help. You are not a burden if you need something, ever. And what disabled people need is not special. You don’t have special needs, you’re not a ‘special person’ - you are a person who has a specific need around your disability, and maybe that need will change, maybe you’ll continue to rehab and you won’t need that thing anymore. ... Like, we hate these signs of impairment so much, and even mobility aids, and we lust for normalcy to this degree that if you’re not getting better at a really fast trajectory, it’s easy to hate yourself.

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We are going to be talking about mental health, why therapy could be helpful to anyone — mental health diagnosis or not — and ways to make therapy more accessible to people with disabilities. For this, the interview will be with a clinical psychologist who, in the interests of full disclosure, I will tell you now has been my closest friend for almost 25 years, Dr. Erica Essary, Psy.D.

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This isn’t an episode of the podcast, not really. This is more of a side note and an apology for an unplanned three month hiatus.

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Episode 06 — How to Keep It Together when it’s all falling apart

In this episode, we are going to be talking about keeping it together. Yes, in the sense of mentally and emotionally weathering life and the world around you, but also (and more specifically) keeping up with all the little changes that happen when a new chronic illness diagnosis or disability happens.

You start with problem X, but that leads to some new symptoms that could be problem Y, and so you get sent to a new specialist who sends you for new kinds of tests, or gives you a new medication to try. And then, the medication might have a side effect that you need to control, so that’s more doctors and maybe additional treatments — where does it end? Before you know it, it feels like your life is both a) falling apart and b) completely subsumed by this new diagnosis, like a giant octopus wrapping its tentacles around everything.

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[sicktipsandtricks]

you should google how to use the Noise Reduction feature in audacity to get rid of the static in your episodes

Hi there!

I don’t use Audacity, I use Adobe Audition. And in this latest episode, the static was the result of a bad phone connection for the guest, hence the apology in the beginning. If you check out some of the other episodes, you’ll find much lower static levels.

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In this episode, we are going to be talking about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or EDS. There are many types of EDS, but they are considered to be the same family of disorders because they all stem from the same cause: improperly made collagen in the body. Collagen is a protein that forms the latticework that everything in the body gets built upon, but it’s not all the same.

There’s 28 different type of collagen across several different genes, and each one has a different effect if there’s an error in the genetic code, resulting in a wide range of possible symptoms for people with some form of EDS.

We’ll talk about some of the most common symptoms and our top tips and tricks on coping with them.

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Episode 04 -- Autism - including interviews with an #ActuallyAutistic adult and a licensed therapist

In this episode, we are going to be talking about autism, also called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and what it’s like to realize, as an adult, that not only are you non-neurotypical but that you are, in fact, autistic.

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In this episode, we have a special guest: we are going to be talking with filmmaker Jen Brea. Jen has ME/CFS, and while making a documentary about the progress of her condition from first symptoms through diagnosis and beyond, she did most of that work from her bed.

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[clarissaexplainingitall]

PICC Line College Survival Guide

Because I really fucking needed this, and couldn’t find one anywhere, so hopefully anyone else who has to go through this can use my experiences as a resource.

Some background: I’ve had three separate PICC lines, all during college, that ranged from minorly troubling to ER-level chaos (including two second degree chemical burns, one suspected blood clot, severe nerve injury, the whole nine yards), so we’re hitting all bases. I’m gonna split this up into ~general~ PICC tips and college-specific ones, because some will be helpful to everyone, and others will be useful for those of you trying to manage this shit during college. Have also included some separate airplane/tsa related tips because that’s a whole other can of beans.

Under the cut bc this is long as fuck.

Keep reading

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Some truly EXCELLENT tips and tricks here! 

I wonder if I can get @clarissaexplainingitall on the podcast...

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Sleep - we all need to do it, but it can be hard once chronic illness steps in and changes everything.

I’m Eirenne and I will be your host as we talk about navigating the world as people with chronic illnesses, both physical and mental, disabilities, and the ways in which the world isn’t necessarily designed for us.

In this episode, we’re going to discuss a thing we all have to do, but that some of us have real trouble with once our chronic illnesses or disabilities change everything: sleeping.

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Episode 01 – Adaptive Coping Mechanisms – What they are and why you need them

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Hello and welcome to episode 0 of the brand new podcast Tips and Tricks on How to be Sick. I’m Eirenne and I will be your host as we talk about navigating the world as people with chronic illnesses, both physical and mental,…

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