Kylie Maslen

Personal essay meets pop-culture critique in this unflinchingly honest collection about chronic illness and misogyny in medicine, by Adelaide writer Kylie Maslen

Living with Invisible Illness

Show Me Where it Hurts

Jenna-Lee Gordon

Memes see me, curled up in the foetal position, too tired to cry.

Memes articulate what's going on in my head better than my abrupt and stuttering text messages to loved ones. I don't have to find the words. Memes have them for me.

They speak for the anger that the doctors don't see, the jealousy I hold for people who are well, the exhaustion I feel at every new appointment and every new symptom and every new dismissal by someone who doesn't understand.

Doctors start to worry that my pain is making me depressed.

They ask, 'How's your mental health?' as if it's a simple question.

I overthink everything and question myself, the way most people do when they're dating, but also in myriad ways that most people don't. I hold back trust because my body hurts me so much that I can't handle the hurt inflicted by others.

To be a woman in pain is to be vulnerable in a society that erases us even when we are well. So we keep our pain and ourselves hidden.

Show Me Where it Hurts quotes

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