Chronically Self-Employed - The Chronic Worker

A Black man wearing glasses and a face mask sits in an orange chair with a laptop. Teal watercolor splashes and books frame him.

Chronically Self-Employed

Freelancing and Self-Employment With Chronic Illness

Freelancing can offer chronically ill workers more control and freedom, but it also shifts the work of finding clients, managing pay, and securing benefits onto you.

Bodies & Health

Trying things, keeping what works

September brought me a retail experiment, a much busier schedule, and a return to making things plus a few lessons about what my body can actually handle.

A woman rests on a gray couch under a patterned blanket, with a mug reading “Disabled, Not Unable” on the coffee table.

Chronically Self-Employed

SIPS Month 2: The long tail of recovery

Being functional and being recovered? Not the same thing. SIPS Month 2 explores the gap between usable capacity and fuller recovery.

Chronically Self-Employed

Yes, AI helped me write this

I tried to get (human) help for my AI-assisted work, only to realize I might be asking for too much. Where exactly do debates about ethical AI use leave disability, money, access, and energy?

A Chronic Worker and SIPS crossover banner with a travel theme, rose compass, and the title: The Curious Case od the Highly Suspicious Human Physiology

Chronically Self-Employed

What month one of SIPS taught me

This imaginary 1930s travel research institute has become the home of all my health data collection and analysis to help me better understand my body with chronic illness.

The Chronic Worker stock photo og disabled woman working from bed with a skull cane and teal journal.

Chronically Self-Employed

Apparently I've been busy

I work from bed and use my cane significantly more than I used to, but life is settling down as I adjust to a new reality of physical and mental chronic illness.

A woman stands alone on a subway platform looking at her phone while other commuters move nearby.

Chronically Self-Employed

Suicide is a control thing

Depression is easy. You just cease to be a functional human being. But choosing to live each day, over and over again? That’s the tough part.

Close up of black walking cane with white skulls leaning on a bidge with person walking away in background.

Chronically Self-Employed

Disabled and unemployed. What's next?

Losing a job is destabilizing enough. Disability, chronic illness, benefits, and inaccessible systems can turn it into a full-time administrative crisis.

Shot of person's hand holding cane with black and white skull pattern on hard wood floor

Chronically Self-Employed

Special health update: A month of surprises

I'm back! The last few months have been surprising to say the least, from potential new diagnoses to a layoff.

Bird sitting in chain link fence on a sunny day.

Chronically Self-Employed

Month 4 Health Update: Trying to find stability

Woman sitting silhouetted looking at the sunset and facing a barbed wire fence

Chronically Self-Employed

Month 2 and 3 Health Update: Lessons and setbacks

Woman in red coat and plaid scarf looking over a foggy city view through lattice bars as the wind whips her hair.

Chronically Self-Employed

Freelancing and Self-Employment With Chronic Illness

Trying things, keeping what works

SIPS Month 2: The long tail of recovery

Yes, AI helped me write this

What month one of SIPS taught me

Apparently I've been busy

Suicide is a control thing

Disabled and unemployed. What's next?

Special health update: A month of surprises

Month 4 Health Update: Trying to find stability

Month 2 and 3 Health Update: Lessons and setbacks

Month 1 Health Update: Living on the suicidal spectrum (TW/CW)