Archive for March, 2018

If you need so much help, why aren’t you asking for it?

In 2010, after a great deal of lobbying by an influential group of headache specialists, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a workshop on headache research that included a small group of people representing stakeholders in headache medicine: representatives from various NIH institutes, various headache organizations, headache specialists, researchers, and patient advocates. The meeting […]

I’ll wear the slinky dress and give up my art if you’ll invest in migraine research

In general, online communities embrace the biomedicalization of migraine, perhaps even more than their  doctors do, in the service of legitimating migraine as a socially sanctioned disease — since they extend the  neurobiological paradigm beyond what biomedical evidence currently supports. They do so because they believe that the neurobiological model is capable of remaking public […]

Energy meter

I found this in my drafts folder from a few years ago. Yesterday I made (simplified and adapted-to-my-dietary-restrictions) curry, soup, and shepherd’s pie. I also walked someone to the bus stop. That is all I did. Today I can’t get out of bed. Things are better now. But mostly because I’m usually not so foolish […]

Double disruption

Pain obliterates identity, but the loss of identity in chronic illness isn’t simply a function of pain. It is also a result of constant gaslighting about the experience of your own body. Pain is a mysterious and terrifying force. It makes sense that pain destroys us. Being told by a loved one that you are […]