The Value of Education for Chronic Illness Patients

Paula Kamen, author of All In My Head, talks about the value of edu­ca­tion in cop­ing with chronic ill­ness in an excel­lent edi­to­r­ial in the New York Times.
Leav­ing the Rab­bit Hole. This pas­sage, in par­tic­u­lar, spoke to me:

The worst thing, to me, about hav­ing a non-stop multi-year headache isn’t nec­es­sar­ily the pain. Or the way it tends to dis­rupt inti­mate rela­tion­ships, empty all finan­cial reserves, and sab­o­tage the best-laid career plans. It’s not even the end­less bar­rage of (albeit well-meaning) sug­ges­tions for “cures” from every­one you meet, most of which you’ve already tried any­way (except for the colon cleans­ing and the Jews for Jesus conversion).

No, it’s the emo­tional suf­fer­ing – from all the guilt and the shame, of patients like me think­ing it’s our entire fault, and maybe all in our heads.

She also men­tions a good site for any­one who has prob­lems with migraines, Rob­bins Headache Clinic.

February 19, 2008  Tags: chronic daily headache, chronic illness, Education, migraines, Pain, Paula Kamen  Posted in: Education, Pain, Resources

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  1. Fibrant Living: Chronic Illnesses & Education - Enemy of Entropy by Cynthia Armistead/TechnoMom - February 20, 2008

    […] or other chronic ill­nesses and prob­a­bly don’t read Fibrant Liv­ing. Today’s post is over there, and has a pointer to a good resource for any­one who has […]

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