“My vagina is depressed!”
I was never a Sex In The City gal, but even I remember the iconic episode where Charlotte gets diagnosed with vulvodynia. It’s poor representation of a misunderstood condition, but it’s Continue Reading →
Author Archives: writehanded
The illusion of safety
It has been another horror week for news of violence against women. This morning, I learned the name of the man who committed a heinous crime. It was a name Continue Reading →
Is addiction the unspoken side effect of chronic illness?
I have enough drugs in my house to kill me. Probably three or four times over. And that’s ‘normal.’ That’s just how it is.
Pain is the doorway
‘Pain is a form of alertness and particularity; pain is a way in.’
Ask Me About My Uterus
Abby Norman was never going to have a ‘normal’ life, no matter how much she may have wanted one. And she really, really did.
2018 retro(/intro)(/per)spective
My immediate response when I try to search the Mines of Moria of my memory is usually a 404 error, and trying to think about the whole past year crashed Continue Reading →
Zopiclone letters
I write a lot to stupid things when I’ve taken zopiclone, which is a sleeping pill that makes me think I’m a creative genius when actually I’m an idiot
‘Manic Depression on a mixtape’
‘Take your pills. Don’t take your pills. Read this self-help book. Call her emotional. Put Manic Depression on a mixtape and give it to her for Christmas.’
Give me back my anxiety chair!
Working my way through the impressive and throat-gripping essays in new anxiety anthology Headlands, I’m struck by two things. How unique each story is – and how each one is Continue Reading →
The ultimate importance of kindness
A few days ago I attended a funeral. I’ve been trying for weeks to write something about kindness and why it matters. Everything seems trite, not enough, or like it Continue Reading →