Let's Discuss

Issue #3 of "What's Her Problem?": Peer support groups benefit both participants and group leaders.

Why peer support groups for chronic illness are so helpful, through the lens of my experience moderating an online discussion group for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

This week’s question: Have you attended a peer support group for an illness or disability? What benefits did you get from your participation, and what were the challenges?

Good News

Issue #2 of "What's Her Problem?": Those of us with chronic illness are so used to receiving bad news from doctors that we don’t stop to celebrate the small wins when we do receive good news.

How I'm learning to handle good news from doctors, instead of always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This week’s question: Do you celebrate your small wins with your health? If so, how do you celebrate? If not, why not? Do you subscribe to the progress principle?

What's Her Problem?

Issue #1: People make assumptions about what chronic illness and disability "should" look like.

My unfortunate encounter with a TSA agent and the origin story for calling my Substack "What's Her Problem?"

Today’s question: How do you handle situations where the validity of your illness or disability is questioned?

Visit whatsherproblem.substack.com to subscribe.

A brief introduction to "What's Her Problem?," a weekly Substack newsletter tackling Issues at the Heart of Chronic Illness and Disability. From writer, patient advocate, and disabled chronic illness warrior Debra Rafson. The voiceover/audio recording of every post will appear in this RSS feed, so subscribe now to stay up to date. whatsherproblem.substack.com