A friend who has been dealing with achronic illness thanked me for being open and honest about my fibro, because it helped her navigate her own symptoms and chronic pain path.

That alone is worth enduring the "Ugh, why are you so negative?" msgs I get when I post about fibro.

Whenever I post about having a flare-up, some bright spark invariably messages me to complain that I'm being too negative, that I need to focus on Being Better or some shit.

And, y'know? Fuck that. You don't want positivity. You just want to ignore people who are in pain.

Toxic positivity, that's the phrase. Fuck it.

tl;dr: I will NEVER stop tweeting, talking, livestreaming, Instagramming, etc. about my chronic illness. If it means one person - whether I know them or not! - sees what I deal with and learns they're not alone, it's worth it. Every time.

That is why I do it.

Having a chronic illness doesn't stop me from doing the things I want or need to do. But it does mean sometimes I have to pause. Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for a day. Sometimes, occasionally, for a week. That's okay. The pause is part of the process.