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Don’t miss out! Subscribe to the Fashionably ill ® newsletter here. Readers who subscribe get a free Depression Tool Kit, which comes with:
- A map of 10 Strategies for getting stuff done when you’re depressed
- 4 Scripts for explaining your depression or bipolar disorder to loved ones, professors, and employers
The scripts helps you advocate for yourself and navigate sticky conversations.
In addition to the free tool kit, readers will get a heads up about upcoming news such as speeches and appearances of mine. For example, people on the listserv were the first to see my TEDx Talk when it was published.
Go gtreatrl! I’m in the process of being tested for hormone problems and cancer after years of pain, fatigue, mood swings, and recently a lump in my breast. All that after a year of severe dermatitis (like the Red Skin Syndrome all over your body, red, weeping, crusting, burning, prickling, itching nastiness), which began as a child and progressively got worse. I can relate to you and your laughter! God is in control, so when were not crying, we laugh at the craziness. My fiance also has fibromyalgia and undiagnosed chronic pain, fstigue, memory problems,. We had to post pone getting married because my flare began after he proposed, and my fiance, who loves to work hard like you do, has been so sick for so long and it’s gotten so bad, he’s had to resign from two jobs within 12 months. Thank you for sharing practical advice, and reminding us that God is the one who powers our days. I love the idea of playing eye of the tiger during morning prayer. I like ASMR videos at night when insomnia or crazy bug-crawling itching is hitting me at night. I’ll have to add a rotation of fight songs to my morning.
Grace and peace to you!
PS: I plan to start blogging in a way similar to you, where I share about my illnesses and progress/setbacks, but also share things I love and just think add fun and beauty to the world, but I have not made it there just yet. I was doing the steroid route, but I stopped responding to the mid-level steroids, so I decided to go down a different route that my MD found called LDA/LDI. The treatment itself plus supplements and anxiety med being kicking my buttnso much as the withdrawal from steroids. At the emd I was using triamcinolone on my face,.neck, chest, arms, belly, and getting half a Kenwood steroid shot every week. I feel great on Prednisone, but I agree that it’s the “devil’s tic-tac,’ as my eczema is wild and wacky times a million once I taper off of it. So anyway, all that to say, if I ever get caught up on things like dishes and buying the special eczema underwear and hammeringndown my finances, then id totally he into stoking my blog into flame and sharing some content with you for when you need to take a hiatus -if this.blog is still something you’re into keeping up. You’re such an industrious woman, and I admire you. Thanks again for sharing what you’ve learned through hard experience. <3 Sorry if this message looks cray cray – I've been typing it on my phone in the bath, and the keyboard.covers up the box. 🙂 God bless!
Thank you for all the great work that you do!!!
Thanks, Craig! That means a lot. Have a good new year, Jessica
Hi Jessica, I have lupus and hyperprolactinemia. I just found your blog after watching your TedX talk. Thank for showing me what resilience means in the face of invisible illnesses. =D
Hello Jessica,
I am watching ur Ted Talk on How to get things done with depression and I’m not quite a halfway through to the part where u mention ur blog and I had to come and find it!
I suffer from depression and this winter season in my small town in Lancaster, County Pa. has been incredibly bad for me. I do suffer from Anxiety, Chronic back pain from 3 scolioses correction surgeries as an adult and fibromyalgia. I wear a fentanyl pain patch and am on meds for my issues.
I have found this winter to be the worst I have ever dealt with my depression other than when I went through my husband’s infidelity and then divorce.
I look forward to reading ur blog and learning how to help myself get motivated on those bad days.
My mother also suffers from depression and has basically given up on life and it is so hard to watch and no matter what the doctors tell her or myself and my 2 sisters she just ignores us and does what she wants, which is nothing but wat hung TV, reading, and sleeping. It’s sad and difficult to watch and deal with!
Thank You So Much for speaking out about this condition and for helping so many people who have it and may feel they are all alone.
God Bless you!
Sincerely,
Lisa Hilton
Hi Lisa, Wow! thanks for sharing–I’m sorry that you have been through *so* much and that not everyone is as supportive of you as they could be. I’ll be starting recording videos on my YouTube channel in May or June about coping with depression like 1 coping mechanism per video. At some point, I’ll talk about light therapy. I’d bring it up with a therapist or psychiatrist. My winter depressions used to be SO much worse until I started light therapy for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) a decade ago. I would have started it much sooner if I had known. Keep in touch – God bless you too, Jessica
You are truly great Jessica, a wonder of God! I’ve fighting depression since my 20’s (it runs in the family. That adding to me having been bullied at high school). Now with 30 years old I have one of those streaks, it’s so ugly! Of course I’m with medication and with a pshychotherapist, and I’m feeling better than the previous month, but I still have “my bad moments”.
Reading your tips is something marvelous. Little by little, practice can makes all us overcome the bad times of clinic depression.
Mucho ánimo y todo mi cariño. From Spain.
Dear Ana Maria, Thank you for your kind words–God bless you! Yes, the bad moments can be hard but I have found that using coping mechanisms + having a plan (in addition to seeing a therapist and taking meds) has lowered the frequency and intensity of my depressive episodes. I hope you find my depression tool kit and the monthly newsletter helpful. It’s a taste of what’s coming in my book. Keep in touch, Jessica