Dear Eleanor, I was diagnosed with osteoporosis at 21 and I’m feeling really bad. Any advice on how to manage this?
Dear Diagnosed,
There’s so much I want to say to you, and there’s so much I wish I understood when I was first sick. The sad reality for me, though, is that I don’t think I can actually communicate the bulk of it in a short advice column like this. Illness is something that happens to us and, in the end, we are pretty fucking powerless against it. Eat right, take yer meds, do your little stretches, etc. But the body, the body, the body will never be tamed.
So what are the lessons?
In the firestorm that is chronic illness, chronic pain: learn to be okay. It’s easy to dwell and to be sad and pissed and to yell and cry. And I think those are good things to do. But 10 years after the fact and you don’t want to still be living a life like that.
To keep reading, checkout the full post on my Substack newsletter, where I write under the pen name “Lithium”.
