Alison smiles into the camera.
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Functional Neurological Disorder treatment programs are worth the effort!

I participated in the MoRe—Motor Reprogramming—program in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016. It was the single most helpful treatment I have ever had, and may ever have, for my Functional Neurological Disorder(FND). In this post, I want to go over why this is a treatment option, how it works, and how you can find a similar…

Alison smiles. She has short brown hair in thi picture and is wearing glasses. Bison are visible behind her
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Accepting my Functional Neurological Disorder diagnosis

April is FND Awareness Month, and April 13 is FND Awareness Day. I’m going all in on that, and I’ll be focusing this post and month on the process of accepting your diagnosis—and illustrating it with my FND experiences (and what I’ve picked up from fellow FNDers inside of discussion groups). I’m also using A…

Two chic Black women grab coffee from an outdoor pick-up window. The woman closest to the barista is in a gold-customized travel mobility scooter and wears a fuzzy purple bucket hat, sweater dress, pink backpack, and red face mask. Next to her, the second woman waits in a pink coat and beret. Bits of snow gather on the ground and sidewalk while the cafe’s windows are decorated with coffee decals.
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Caregiving: Do I need to hire a caregiver?

While the term caregiver is bandied about a lot in the disabled community, it’s important to distinguish between paid and unpaid caregiving. Many of us have been caregivers in a less official capacity at various points in our lives—caring for children, parents, siblings, or friends during temporary or long-term health problems. Most of us have…

A South Asian person in a wheelchair brings mini cupcakes out on a platter to four other excited disabled people of color. They are all sitting around a rooftop deck.
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Participating in discussion groups about your condition

One of the groups that I’ve been active in over the years has been FND Hope‘s collection of Facebook groups on Functional Neurological Disorder (FND), the condition I was diagnosed with in 2003. There are both risks and benefits to participating in these groups, but generally, I’d argue that they’re worthwhile, especially early on and…

Close-up of a Filipinx woman with a filtering face mask, sitting at a table with notebook and pen. She has colorful flower earrings and headphones on while looking into the distance.
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Five ways that recording your health history can improve your life

I have been living with chronic conditions, both physical and mental, since I was a kid. I’ve been encouraged to write about it, talk about it, think about it, and then put it all aside and move forward with my life. There are good reasons for doing these things. Today, I want to talk to…

Alison smiles at the camera
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Lessons learned from 2020

So it’s once again time for A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. This month’s words are beginning, symbolizing, enduring, revealing, gracing. As it is January, I’m going to write about the concepts these words bring up for me and what lessons I’ve learned from 2020. Beginning the new year with new medication coverage The headache started in…

blurry picture of a Christmas tree with blue lighting
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How low expectations get me through the holidays

I don’t know about you, but I tend to feel a bit depressed around the holidays. I definitely know that a big part of it is how strongly I associate this time of year with my father’s death. I’ve got a long history with depression and have learned that I tend to mentally string together…

Recognizing my progress, despite the challenges this year has brought
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Recognizing my progress, despite the challenges this year has brought

So it’s once again time for A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. This month’s words are exhausting, exciting, socializing, indulging, and cutting. Like most people, Covid-19 had a large impact on my life, and not always in expected ways. Join me in processing just what changed this year and the lessons I’ve learned from that. Fear is…

Alison looks up into a spruce tree, which has googly eyes placed in it to imply that the tree is an animal.
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My life as a disabled entrepreneur

So it’s once more time for A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. This month’s words are incorporating, experimenting, sanitizing, launching, and writing. This months words feel very business-oriented, so I’m going to roll with that feeling. Before I say anything else, though, I want to invite you to join me for a presentation on November 17, at…

signs pointing in different directions with a sunset in the background
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Learning to pivot: Recognizing your choices with the greatest impact

Being disabled or chronically ill is often accompanied by a sense of your world shrinking. There are things that you could do, but now can’t. There are places you could go, but are now more challenging or less fun, or more stressful or difficult. Options seem to decrease, and the world often seems just a…