Self Care

Tamra Ann Chase
Nampa, ID
Spondyloarthropathy, Psoriatic Arthritis

I was damaged by an antibiotic and diagnosed with Reactive Spondyloarthropathy and later Psoriatic Arthritis and Mother of two Autoimmune Children; Stills and Lupus SLE respectively. Autoimmune illness is many times mostly invisible. Even though it is very real and at times debilitating. It is hard not to listen to the outside voices that will likely never understand the internal struggle to just get out of bed somedays. Depression and anxiety often accompany chronic illness/pain. Words like Hypochondriac and comments to “suck it up” or advice that this or that will cure it are hard to escape. Or the “I know exactly how you feel” reply. We will often shut down, distance from others or worse, let those words sink in. My painting is part of the internal healing that not all things are finite, the broken infinity symbol is a reminder of this and one of the best ways to heal is to learn Self Love. Loving oneself makes it easier to drown out the outside voices and the Daisies are for Hope.