Health and Writing

[OhMissScarlett]

I've noticed a lot of Lit writers besides myself who have chronic pain/health issues. So, how do you cope? Does the pain/illness inhibit your ability to write, or is it helpful as a distraction from your problems?

Personally, I find that my illness(fibromyalgia), at its worst, has seriously impaired my ability to focus on writing, or any sort of task that requires an attention span. Also, when I'm miserable, I don't feel sexy and that's something essential to writing sex, for me anyway. So, I'd love to know how everyone else deals with the physical aspect of being a writer, whether it's dealing with the common cold, carpel tunnel syndrome, or serious physical disabilities, etc.

 

[Darkniciad]

I've noticed a lot of Lit writers besides myself who have chronic pain/health issues. So, how do you cope? Does the pain/illness inhibit your ability to write, or is it helpful as a distraction from your problems?

Personally, I find that my illness(fibromyalgia), at its worst, has seriously impaired my ability to focus on writing, or any sort of task that requires an attention span. Also, when I'm miserable, I don't feel sexy and that's something essential to writing sex, for me anyway. So, I'd love to know how everyone else deals with the physical aspect of being a writer, whether it's dealing with the common cold, carpel tunnel syndrome, or serious physical disabilities, etc.

First and know that no matter how many people look down on you, thinking that your illness is all in your head -- it isn't.

My babydoll didn't write, but the pain did stifle her in all of her other creative outlets. She felt like a burden, unsexy, depressed -- the works. Nothing I or anyone else could do or say would really overcome it for more than a short period, either.

Keep a med journal, and don't fall off the wagon of doing so, no matter what -- especially if you're on any depression/sleep meds as well.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

One of the reasons I sort of write in spurts is because it's obcessive. I write. I don't eat. I don't sleep. Then I have to recover.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

First and know that no matter how many people look down on you, thinking that your illness is all in your head -- it isn't.

My babydoll didn't write, but the pain did stifle her in all of her other creative outlets. She felt like a burden, unsexy, depressed -- the works. Nothing I or anyone else could do or say would really overcome it for more than a short period, either.

Keep a med journal, and don't fall off the wagon of doing so, no matter what -- especially if you're on any depression/sleep meds as well.

Thank you! I can totally sympathize with those feelings she had, for sure. It's no life at all. It's a bullshit mysterious disease that every doctor wants to simply throw drugs at and not really deal with the causes.

I spent the better part of the last nine years the same way. I've run the gamut of trying everything, staying in bed for days, etc. I'm happy to say that through diet, acupuncture, supplements, and exercise, I am completely drug free and about 80% better. It's a lot of work, but it is possible. I'm down to about one really bad day a week.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Root hog! Or die!

My attitude is this: If I were the only human on the planet I'd die if I didnt get my ass outta bed and take care of bidness. I'm less productive sick, but the show must go on! Plus you train yourself to make hay while the Sun shines.

In fact, some of my best days were times when I was so disabled I couldnt function, like after abdominal suregery. I mean, you cant dance, plow, or chase skirts at such times.

 

[Darkniciad]

Thank you! I can totally sympathize with those feelings she had, for sure. It's no life at all. It's a bullshit mysterious disease that every doctor wants to simply throw drugs at and not really deal with the causes.

I spent the better part of the last nine years the same way. I've run the gamut of trying everything, staying in bed for days, etc. I'm happy to say that through diet, acupuncture, supplements, and exercise, I am completely drug free and about 80% better. It's a lot of work, but it is possible. I'm down to about one really bad day a week.

Glad to hear it The cocktail that they try to put you on is just too dangerous, because they don't really understand ( or at times, even believe ) the condition.

 

[Guest]

I've noticed a lot of Lit writers besides myself who have chronic pain/health issues. So, how do you cope? Does the pain/illness inhibit your ability to write, or is it helpful as a distraction from your problems?

Personally, I find that my illness(fibromyalgia), at its worst, has seriously impaired my ability to focus on writing, or any sort of task that requires an attention span. Also, when I'm miserable, I don't feel sexy and that's something essential to writing sex, for me anyway. So, I'd love to know how everyone else deals with the physical aspect of being a writer, whether it's dealing with the common cold, carpel tunnel syndrome, or serious physical disabilities, etc.

Of course it would impact your ability to write.

And I don't have an answers.

For me, real life trumps all - the writing just doesn't happen anymore.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

James, I agree. It's important to keep going, no matter what. Plus, all the shit you don't get done just seems to compound by the day!

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Glad to hear it The cocktail that they try to put you on is just too dangerous, because they don't really understand ( or at times, even believe ) the condition.

Oh yeah, I won't even get into the myriad of crap doctors have told me. The most frequent is that I needed to lose weight and exercise or that I was lazy. Um, at that point, I was working out five days a week.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Of course it would impact your ability to write.

And I don't have an answers.

For me, real life trumps all - the writing just doesn't happen anymore.

Here's hoping you get some much needed "me" time in the very near future.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Oh yeah, I won't even get into the myriad of crap doctors have told me. The most frequent is that I needed to lose weight and exercise or that I was lazy. Um, at that point, I was working out five days a week.

One week ago I couldnt lift my foot to put on a shoe, and needed a cane to get out of bed. Today I'm like the hippo balerinas of FANTASIA. It was the vitamins I took.

You kinda gotta discover what your real problem is cuz the docs dont know.

I just read a new book about brain research. ADD has been blamed on everything from sugar to allergies to alcoholic fathers, but its a developmental delay. What I always suspected.

 

[PREMwriter]

I suffer from Arthritis in my hands from repeatedly injuring them when I was younger. Left hand from being crushed by a forklift and the right from punching things I shouldn't have. The result is pain so intense it makes me want to cut the things off and be done with them. What I did find interesting is what it made me think of writing. When the pain was there, I wanted to write mean, nasty BDSM stuff. When things are settled, I want to write more loving and sexier stuff. I guess the pain we feel plays a large part in how we look at our writing in terms of where our emotional value is in the things we write about. Mental pain and physical pain can dictate a myriad of responses from us. The worst part is when the pain hits, I have to resort to hunt and peck with two fingers that don't hurt as much, like today.

 

[JackLuis]

I've been suffering, (too harsh a term for it) from a shoulder that hurts when I raise it up. Probably caused by my arm resting on the arm of my writing chair?

Makes me realize how old I am. ( shakes head)

That and arthritis in my elbow.

I just grin and bare it, but man it hurts sometimes. I tend to just read the AH for days at a time until it gets better.

 

[Recidiva]

I have chronic migraines. As a result I work at home and have a severely curtailed ability to interact socially. Not only is there a possibliity that bright lights and strong smells will bring on a migraine, I just...have less in common with people in a casual social setting. Nobody really wants to sit at a charming dinner table and discuss chronic, shrieking pain. It's a downer. I'm a downer, in short.

I find that my internal world can be very harsh and dark. Making up people to talk to was just one of my hobbies that while I was down for the count for days on end, I'd talk to myself. At my worst it could result in an almost schizophrenic state. At my best it was sustaining and kept me from other things I considered to be destructive - "Why me?" for instance. I had to find a way to not ask myself that question. I had to distract myself from just wanting to kill myself.

Some of my writing is reflections of the conversations or fantasies I have in that twilight state.

My writing has given me opportunities to explore that fractured setting that I have in my own head without burdening another human being. I'm afraid sharing my experiences work out to me feeling I'm inviting someone to hell with me.

I'm getting healthier due to working out some issues, and I'm much healthier than when I first started at Lit, when writing became one of those distracting challenges that kept me from asking "Why me?"

I have very little ambition for my writing and I've done it as a distraction and coping technique. I write when I'm working something out. No matter how sick I am, if there's a story I'll work on it when I can't function in the physical world and I need something for my brain to chew on like a strap of leather so I don't bite through my own tongue.

I don't think I feel sexy when I write, but I do feel passion and I never have a shortage of that.

I'm sick all the time. I'm never really not free of either about to be or just coming off of being sick. I do my thinking while I'm down, I do my writing while I'm up.

 

[Handley_Page]

One of the reasons I sort of write in spurts is because it's obcessive. I write. I don't eat. I don't sleep. Then I have to recover.

until fairly recently that's the same as me, but with electronic gubbins.

 

[Guest]

My illnesses definitely affect both my desire and my ability to write. I've had fibromylagia for 20 years (diagnosed for 17). I tried amitriptyline years ago and gained 50 pounds, so I've been drug-free with regard to fibromylagia for about a decade. However, the flares are beginning to be more severe and to come more frequently. My usual method of dealing with them--sharply increasing my protein for several days--didn't work for the recent two back-to-back flares that lasted almost three weeks. Since I essentially write for a living, the pain, fatigue, occasional migraine, and "fibrofog" during flare make it very hard to do my job, let alone think about writing my own stuff when I get home. So, I'm arguing with my insurance company about Lyrica. Don't know whether I'll be able to tolerate it.

I've also had peripheral neuropathy for 8 years due to taking high doses of statins over time to control genetic hyperlipidemia. (In case any of you are wondering, yes, it is familial--I was lacto-vegetarian in my early thirties and still ran a total cholesterol over 240.) The phantom electrical shocks in my legs have largely disappeared and I've pretty much learned to ignore the burning pain in my feet, muscle weakness and soreness on exertion, and fatigueability--but they tend to wear me down. Losing 15% of my muscle mass in one year before we figured out what was causing the neuropathy hasn't helped either. While I'm not diabetic, my kind of neuropathy is indistinguishable from diabetic neuropathy, so I'm hoping that Lyrica (also indicated for diabetic neuropathy) might kill two birds with one stone.

Between the two conditions, I'm tired a great deal and have to reserve my best efforts and energy for work. Not much left when I get home for writing.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

My illnesses definitely affect both my desire and my ability to write. I've had fibromylagia for 20 years (diagnosed for 17). I tried amitriptyline years ago and gained 50 pounds, so I've been drug-free with regard to fibromylagia for about a decade. However, the flares are beginning to be more severe and to come more frequently. My usual method of dealing with them--sharply increasing my protein for several days--didn't work for the recent two back-to-back flares that lasted almost three weeks. Since I essentially write for a living, the pain, fatigue, occasional migraine, and "fibrofog" during flare make it very hard to do my job, let alone think about writing my own stuff when I get home. So, I'm arguing with my insurance company about Lyrica. Don't know whether I'll be able to tolerate it.

I've also had peripheral neuropathy for 8 years due to taking high doses of statins over time to control genetic hyperlipidemia. (In case any of you are wondering, yes, it is familial--I was lacto-vegetarian in my early thirties and still ran a total cholesterol over 240.) The phantom electrical shocks in my legs have largely disappeared and I've pretty much learned to ignore the burning pain in my feet, muscle weakness and soreness on exertion, and fatigueability--but they tend to wear me down. Losing 15% of my muscle mass in one year before we figured out what was causing the neuropathy hasn't helped either. While I'm not diabetic, my kind of neuropathy is indistinguishable from diabetic neuropathy, so I'm hoping that Lyrica (also indicated for diabetic neuropathy) might kill two birds with one stone.

Between the two conditions, I'm tired a great deal and have to reserve my best efforts and energy for work. Not much left when I get home for writing.

Wow, much luck with getting on Lyrica. I hope it works for you. I was offered it and refused just recently, so let me know how it goes. I can't imagine how hard it must be to write for a living with fibro.

 

[slyc_willie]

The pain helps, strangely enough. I don't have to imagine, or wonder, what it feels like to be shot, stabbed, cut, rolled in a car, experience a pulmonary embolism, or get the crap beat out of me. I've experienced all that. As it is now, I live with daily pain that is occasionally debilitating. But it doesn't stop me. It can't. Writing is an art, and there's nothing more satisfying than creating art. It's worth the pain.

 

[starscape]

One of the reasons I sort of write in spurts is because it's obcessive. I write. I don't eat. I don't sleep. Then I have to recover.

I do this too. It's like being possessed. During my creative periods I often get a high from writing and don't want to stop (and usually don't) even though it can cause difficulties in other areas of my life. When it's over I crash hard, sleep like crazy and can't write shit for weeks or months. This cycle does a number on my health, both mental and physical, and is mostly like exacerbated by having a mood disorder. But damn, those weeks when the words flow and flow are something else...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The pain helps, strangely enough. I don't have to imagine, or wonder, what it feels like to be shot, stabbed, cut, rolled in a car, experience a pulmonary embolism, or get the crap beat out of me. I've experienced all that. As it is now, I live with daily pain that is occasionally debilitating. But it doesn't stop me. It can't. Writing is an art, and there's nothing more satisfying than creating art. It's worth the pain.

Your's or our's?

 

[vrosej10]

I've noticed a lot of Lit writers besides myself who have chronic pain/health issues. So, how do you cope? Does the pain/illness inhibit your ability to write, or is it helpful as a distraction from your problems?

Personally, I find that my illness(fibromyalgia), at its worst, has seriously impaired my ability to focus on writing, or any sort of task that requires an attention span. Also, when I'm miserable, I don't feel sexy and that's something essential to writing sex, for me anyway. So, I'd love to know how everyone else deals with the physical aspect of being a writer, whether it's dealing with the common cold, carpel tunnel syndrome, or serious physical disabilities, etc.

I have severe arthritis and TMJ. I am in constant pain, but I have a suck it up attitude. I watched both my parents get hooked on painkillers. I just live with my pain like I don't have any and keep going. It's all I can do. If I stop, I'll never be able to do anything again and I am too young to quit on my life.

One of the reasons I sort of write in spurts is because it's obcessive. I write. I don't eat. I don't sleep. Then I have to recover.

That sounds like me during a manic attack (I'm bipolar type 2). I write beautifully and like a demon when I'm squirrelly.