My Obsession with Blogging in the Chronic Illness Community

Blogging in the chronic illness community

I was really excited when Sheryl from A Chronic Voice shared this month’s writing prompts. Last month’s prompts were so easy for me, I had a post done within an hour or so the same day. Quite the opposite this time. I had no idea what I would do with these seemingly impossible prompts. I kept going back to them and staring blankly at my screen.

Then I would remember all of the things I needed to work on for Pain Reaction. I kept getting distracted by all of my other blogging tasks that I couldn’t seem to do the actual blog post I wanted to be working on. It took over two weeks for me to realize that this was exactly what I could write about.

Blogging and patient advocacy have taken over my life and I couldn’t be happier.

This post is written as part of the April 2021 linkup hosted by A Chronic Voice. I highly recommend reading some of the other posts involved. It’s always interesting to get different perspectives from the same writing prompts.

Springing

The main things springing from my mess of a mind right now? Thoughts, ideas, strategies…everything to do with this blog! I have so many ideas, so many directions I want to go and so many things in progress right now. I just always want to be involved with the chronic illness community. This is a good thing and a bad thing.

On one hand, I always have something to work on. I have some kind of plan in place and I know what I want to cover on Pain Reaction. It’s a lot all at once, but it’s a great feeling.

On the other hand, it’s a lot all at once. I have way too many ideas. My Trello lists are incredibly long. I never know which post idea I want to work on next. I have a couple projects on the go otherwise, so do I focus on those today or write a post? Was starting Pain Perspectives a good idea? Will anyone even contribute? At least when I’m dealing with painsomnia I have something to work on!

Grounding

While I may not practice actual grounding, I do try to keep myself mentally grounded. Although, laying on the earth for a while sounds kinda nice as I love the feel of grass on my skin and barefoot me is a much happier me. But I digress.

With having so many things going on with Pain Reaction at the moment, I do try to keep myself focused on one thing at a time. I remind myself that this is still new, there is still plenty of time to get things done and I can’t expect traffic to boom overnight.

I try to notice when I’ve become too absorbed with blogging and focus my energy elsewhere. My husband is usually the one to keep me grounded. Whether he’s drawing me a bath or convincing me to go for a family walk. I’m very grateful for everything he does.

Luxuriating

So I’ve probably made it obvious that I’m obsessed with blogging. It’s my main indulgence at the moment and I luxuriate in any success, no matter how small. Everytime I design something in Canva, I feel a little bit more accomplished (even though it’s an incredibly easy design tool). Spending time checking out new pins in Tailwind communities has been more fun than it should be too.

When I gain a follower, I grin to myself that someone might actually be interested in what I have to share. Waking up in the morning to a bunch of notifications on my phone is always exciting. I know full well that Pain Reaction isn’t even close to being considered popular in the chronic illness community, but I don’t care. I love what I’m doing and I love to indulge in this hobby/part (who am I kidding, FULL) time job.

Daunting

As I’ve said, I’ve taken on a few projects. Pain Perspectives is certainly one of the most daunting of them. Trying to create an engaged patient community on such a new blog has been no small task. I don’t know how many responses I will get or if I’ve asked the right questions. I don’t know what a completed post will look like yet. How often will I do new sessions?

I’ve put so much on my plate purely out of obsession with this blog that I occasionally wonder what the hell I’m doing to myself. Trying to make Pain Reaction into something useful for other patients is an utterly daunting task, but I’m not giving up. I’m just trying to make sense of all of my scrambled thoughts on how to get there.

Sustaining

It’s pretty easy to say I’ve sustained my interest in blogging. I’m always learning something new. I’ve found several communities to be a part of and ways to be active in them. The chronic illness community is amazing and I’m so happy to have found my people.

I somewhat know which direction I want to take some of my advocacy and which areas to explore further. I’m putting a lot of effort into everything I want Pain Reaction to be and it’s certainly difficult to sustain that effort sometimes. The passion is there though, it’s just my body that has a hard time every now and then, but what else is new…

Although really, I could make my life easier if I just told my husband that I started a blog. But where is the fun in that?

Start Your Own Obsession

Even with the ups and downs of blogging, I would still recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat. If you’re part of the chronic illness community, it can be incredibly cathartic to get your thoughts out there. Maybe you’ll help someone else in a similar situation. Maybe you’ll make a bunch of new friends. Or maybe you’ll discover a whole new way to become an advocate. It’s worth a shot and at the very least you will become a part of this wonderful online community. You can get a domain name and start a website for less than $5 per month with BlueHost if you’re interested.

If you want more blogs to follow, check out my roundup of chronic illness blogs.

Are you obsessed with blogging too? Thinking about starting a blog? I’d love to hear your thoughts or connect if we haven’t already. Leave a comment below!

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My Obsession with Blogging in the Chronic Illness Community