Creativity and Chronic Pain: My Journey with Endometriosis

Based on the subject matter of my artwork, it may come as a surprise that most of my recent illustration and design work has been created during often debilitating pain flare-ups. 

Last week, I was told I have endometriosis. This ended the quest for diagnosis that I had been on for the past three years, trying to find an answer for my chronic pain. What began as incredibly painful periods when I was a teenager slowly devolved into pelvic pain that strayed outside my usual time of the month, becoming near-constant. For a long time I chalked this up to so many other things: maybe I had IBS, maybe it was just stress, my anxiety, my cross to bear. My mom had always had really painful periods. Maybe it was hereditary. Maybe it was just the card I had been dealt.