Medical trauma

Minimalist illustration of a woman surrounded by symbols of love, happiness, anger, sadness, and other emotions, while a band of fog obscures her eyes, representing emotional numbness and difficulty accessing feelings.

Understanding Emotional Numbness in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Living with EDS often comes with navigating an ongoing cycle of injuries, fatigue, symptom flares, medical appointments, unexpected setbacks, and uncertainty about what your body will do next. For many people, EDS-related stressors are cumulative, where each new experience adds to an already heavy emotional burden. Over time, this constant state of stress and adaptation […]

Overhead view of multiple blister packs containing different prescription medications and tablets beside medication bottles and a tissue on a white surface, representing the complexity and emotional burden of starting and managing medications with chronic illness.

The Fear No One Talks About: Starting a New Medication When Chronically Ill

  “What if it causes anaphylaxis?” “What if it makes me sick?” “What if it doesn’t work?” “Once I take it I can’t undo it.” For most people, starting a new prescription is routine – pick it up, get generic instructions from the pharmacist, take it, then report back to your doctor in a few […]

Minimalist pencil sketch of a woman with long dark hair and a calm, contemplative expression, facing slightly to the side. Subtle abstract shapes and a faint anatomical heart appear behind her. Soft handwritten text in the background reads, “Survival is not resilience. It is grit.”

Persistent

Many timesI have been called resilient. A title inflicted on melike a brilliant,gleaming badge of honor. But it was one that I never asked for.Worn without choiceor the ability to claima different perspective,a different name. I give myself a new description,a title that encompassesthe pain and infliction. I am persistent. Resilience is to bendand not […]

Collage featuring the documentary Complicated: the main film poster shows a silhouetted mother and child holding hands, alongside photos from screening events including a speaker presenting in a theater, attendees and families posing at screenings, and group photos from medical and advocacy conferences.

Why May is The Moment for “Complicated”

We didn’t plan it this way, but the release of our documentary film, Complicated, on Apple TV in May feels almost fated. Between Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Awareness Month and Mother’s Day, the timing reflects the very heart of this project that we started nine years ago. To see it come to fruition has been incredible, and I […]

A bald man with a white coat is sitting across a desk from another man.

“It’s All in Your Head”: New Study Confirms What hEDS Patients Have Been Told for Decades

A landmark study has revealed what most people with hypermobile EDS (hEDS) already knew since disease onset: a staggering rate of psychiatric misdiagnosis among patients with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS). The study found that 94.4% of patients were initially misdiagnosed with psychiatric conditions—often by physicians without psychiatric expertise—before receiving an accurate diagnosis of hEDS. Many […]

a person touching a woman s eye with a bruise

Part 5: Healing the Hurt: How To Handle Clinician-Associated Trauma

Over the past several months, Chronic Pain Partners has published a series of articles about clinician-associated trauma based on the paper “Clinician-associated traumatization from difficult medical encounters: Results from a qualitative interview study on the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes” by Colin M.E. Halverson, Heather L. Penwell, and Clair A. Francomano. The last four Chronic Pain Partners articles […]

doctor talking to a patient

Part Four: The Rise of Clinician-Associated Trauma in the Doctor-Patient Relationship

Content warning: This article discusses difficult encounters and experiences with medical clinicians that some readers may find upsetting or triggering. Please take care of yourself as you see fit.   I did not receive an hEDS [hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome] diagnosis until I was 29 years old, and until 2023, I did not feel one ounce […]

Plastic surgeon prepares a patient

Part Three: Medical Gaslighting as a Source of Clinician-Associated Trauma

Content warning: This article discusses medical gaslighting and real-life examples of clinician-associated trauma. Please take care of yourself as you see fit.  As previously reported, clinician-associated trauma (CAT) is a new term used to describe the trauma created by repeated, negative clinical interactions. It was coined as a result of the study reported in “Clinician-associated […]