Just Stress Less!

It's the solution to everything.

My husband gave me a concerned look when he saw me working on this cartoon. We were on a plane at the time, on our way back from a trip to Hawai’i. He asked if this was really how I’d summarize our vacation, which was, overall, extremely relaxing and, except for some sunburn, nothing like an encounter with a fire-breathing dragon.

This cartoon was not inspired by our trip (which I’ll write about soon). And don’t get me wrong—having a stress-free week did a lot to help both my chronic migraines and my anxiety. But not every vacation has been so helpful. In fact, most every trip we’ve taken since I developed chronic pain has been more of a struggle than it’s worth. Because, oddly enough, it’s really hard to relax when in a lot of pain!

Chronic illness is not caused by stress, and telling someone who is neck-deep in confusing, stressful symptoms that stress is making them feel worse is comically unhelpful. It’s like to telling someone with a cold that they really should stop staying up all night coughing, because sleeping will help them feel better.

And yet, if I had an Ativan for every time I’ve been told that stressing less would cure me, I’d be one very cool cucumber. Who still gets migraines.

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Cartoon Caption Contest!

A couple days ago, I posted this cartoon on Notes without a caption, and THREE of you wonderful people commented with your own caption ideas. (No sense in me pretending I’m running the New Yorker caption contest, I guess!)

The winning caption was submitted by

Good Humor by CK Steefel

: “I’m all out of fire extinguishers.”

And runners up include:

Chris Stanton

: “Have you tried acupuncture?”

Elizabeth Bobrick

: “Have you tried yoga?”

Lydia Larson

: “It’s all in your head!”

My husband: “Yikes, it’s a dragon!”