A Balancing Act: how I’m managing the daily currency of Spoons

A Balancing Act: how I’m managing the daily currency of Spoons

Living with a chronic illness can be like walking a tightrope. I live with Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and a depressive disorder. In order to best manage my Fibromyalgia, it’s vital that I carefully pace myself. Too much leads to burn out, but too little activity can also worsen my s

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Many Times Mental Illness Can Carry Stigma

Many Times Mental Illness Can Carry Stigma

If meeting 54-year-old Rita Dinquel in public, you likely would see her as confident, intelligent, and articulate. She would look “normal.” Yet doctors over the years have diagnosed her with major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder, conditions significantly impairing her abi

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Personal Essay: Wonder Woman, I Am Not!

As a little girl, I always wanted to be Wonder Woman. What little girl wouldn't want to twirl around transforming into her extraordinary alter ego? Like so many girls my age I dreamed about putting on this super heroes golden tiara and cuffs, red boots, snazzy one piece suit and of course her lasso

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Essay: Laughter Really IS the Best Medicine

For as long as I can remember, my parents always had a subscription to Reader’s Digest. I was never a big fan of the articles, but I can tell you this, I always went right for the funny stuff. You remember…Laughter is the Best Medicine, Humor in Uniform, All in a Day’s Work, etc. I often w

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Christmas is the Season for Giving

I was at the house of a very good friend of mine for coffee the other day and we were discussing how hard it was to have a normal life being sick, she has been diagnosed with arthritis and she is only 34 years old. I noticed two bins lined at the end of the family room that had a few toys sitting on

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My Vote Will Count, Will Yours?

I saw the best commercial this year – a woman leaves her apt, it’s raining, and she gets on the bus. When she gets off the bus, the camera pans out and we see that she is in a wheelchair. She ducks under a barrier to wheel herself to the building to vote. If she can do it – so can everyone els

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Essay: Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for the good things in your life. You can give thanks for friends, family, a good job, good health…wait! Good health? Raise your hands if you go through an entire week without complications from your respective conditions. No hands? I thought so. Although living

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Essay: Voting is a Right!

Voting is part of what makes our nation great. You don’t have to worry about being shot while you wait in line to vote. You don’t have to sit in jail and be force fed because you want the right to vote – the suffragettes did that for you. All you need to do is VOTE! The only way to make cha

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Contest Essay: Face in the Mirror

This month we had a contest and asked some of our readers, members and volunteers to write a creative peice about What has BYDLS and "the spoon theory" meant to you? The short essay below was written by one of our readers/members. Her name is Janet Leah Noles. Thank you for sending this in. I lo

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Contest Entry: Thanks For The Spoons!

This month we had a contest and asked some of our readers, members and volunteers to write a creative peice about What has BYDLS and "the spoon theory" meant to you? This entry is by Sheila Talley Thanks For The Spoons! I knew there had to be a word, A name for what I felt Some way to explain to

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