LoveWarriorHugs on Living With Five Chronic Illnesses

05/01/24 • 58 min

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Jamie is a social media chronic illness advocate under the handle @LoveWarriorHugs, but her advocacy extends beyond social media. She is an epilepsy ambassador with the National Epilepsy Foundation, and she's also been involved in successfully lobbying to change pain management laws in Illinois. Her passion for advocacy stems from her own experience living with five chronic illnesses, asthma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, trigeminal neuralgia and IBS. On this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Jamie discusses her chronic illness journey. The illness that currently affects her the most is trigeminal neuralgia (TN), which causes daily facial pain. Jamie walks us through how this disease works, the many treatments she has attempted and the link between TN and MS. She discusses how her diagnoses have interwoven with her life, including the difficulty of balancing chronic illness with motherhood and how her passion for advocacy was sparked.

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Rasheera Dopson on Being Born Almost 5 Months Premature, Causing VATER and Goldenhar Syndromes

Rasheera Dopson, host of the Womanhood & Disability podcast, is an accomplished author, public speaker and advocate spreading her messages of justice, disability empowerment and awareness. She came by this work through her own experience living with two rare syndromes, both caused by her being born about 5 months premature. It took over 100 surgeries to fill in the gaps where Rasheera's body was underdeveloped at birth. Rasheera's rare conditions are both visible and invisible. Her visible diagnosis is a craniofacial condition called Goldenhar, which involves the right side of her face being underdeveloped. She was born without a right jaw bone, and has had around 30 reconstructive surgeries on her jaw alone. The invisible condition is called VATER syndrome, which is a group of growth abnormalities affecting a fetus in early development. VATER is an acronym for the body parts that can be affected by this condition, vertebrae, anus, trachea, esophagus and renal (kidney). The heart and limbs can also be affected. In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Rasheera talks us through her journey from patient to activist. She discusses the unique challenges faced at different periods in her life, first enduring countless surgeries as a child and teenager, and then finding her place in the world as a young adult. She teaches us about her rare diseases, and discusses the road that led to her activism and advocacy work. Connect with Rasheera on Instagram @RasheeraDopson

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In ‘Gender Without Identity’ Dr. Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini Propose A Novel Theory Of Gender Development

This week on the Major Pain podcast we are joined by NYU Professors and psychoanalysts Dr. Avgi Saketopoulou and Ann Pellegrini to discuss the intersection of trauma and gender, as discussed in their book Gender Without Identity. They propose a new theory of gender development, that gender is something all people develop in relationship to trauma, rather than an intrinsic identity we are born with. Their book seeks to shed light on the complex tapestry of experiences that shape one's gender expression and perception. Dr. Avgi Saketopoulou is a psychoanalyst in private practice in NYC and a member of the faculty at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia from the Sexual Cultures Series (NYU Press). Visit her website at https://www.avgisaketopoulou.com/ Ann Pellegrini is Professor of Performance Studies & Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University, and a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City. Their previous books include Performance Anxieties: Staging Psychoanalysis, Staging Race (Routledge, 1997) and the 2014 Lambda Finalist in Best LGBT Non-Fiction You Can Tell Just by Looking and 20 Other Myths About LGBT Life and People, coauthored with Michael Bronski and Michael Amico (Beacon Press, 2013). Find them online at https://annpellegrini.com