On Writing with Chronic Migraines

My essay on chronic pain and creativity is featured in Catapult Magazine this week. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s hard to explain chronic pain to someone who doesn’t experience it, the way the physical pain blurs together with the psychological toll it takes. I mean, the actual pain is plenty painful—sometimes so bad that it’s hard to want to live. But a lot of the time it’s more about the accumulation of the pain. It’s like listening to that leaf blower outside that isn’t too annoying for one minute but grows maddening after two hours. It’s hard to imagine that the leaf blower will ever stop. Or when it does stop for a moment, you’re just brooding, worrying, waiting for that asshole to start it up again.

To read more about my chronic pain, and my chronic creativity, and my dislike of leaf blowers, check out ”On Writing with Chronic Migraines” on Catapult.