In this episode of Authbition, I sit down with writer Elle Becker for a conversation about chronic pain, invisibility, and what it takes to stay present in a body that won’t cooperate. Elle reads an excerpt from her essay How Chronic Pain Tries to Erase Me, and together we explore how grace, connection, and forward movement can coexist with ongoing suffering — without pretending it isn’t there.
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Before the essay, Elle and I talk about writing in the early hours of the morning, when the world is quiet, and the subconscious is still close to the surface. We talk about community — writing groups, support networks, and the strange loneliness that can come with pain that other people can’t see.
What kept surfacing was the tension between being invisible and being deeply connected — to other writers, to readers, to strangers, and to people we’ll never meet but are still part of our story.
Elle’s essay is a raw, unsparing account of living with severe chronic pain — bone pain, nerve pain, exhaustion — and the way illness can slowly shrink a life if you let it. But it’s also a refusal. A refusal to become a ghost. A choice to remain visible, to smile without pretending, and to make room for grace even when the pain isn’t going anywhere.
👉 Read the featured essay
medium.com
After the reading, we play The Whole Mind Game, using the tension:
Suffering & Sadness <> Grace & Hope
Rather than landing on a lesson or a fix, we arrive somewhere more practical. The best-of-the-best isn’t optimism or denial — it’s forward flow. Keep moving. Don’t get stuck mid-chapter. Don’t sit in the muck so long that it hardens around you.
Chronic pain is extreme, but the themes in this episode are universal: being unseen, being misunderstood, and learning how to live fully with something that isn’t going away.
If you like what Elle is doing, here’s where you can find more of her work beyond the episode:
This episode is a reminder that pain needs no translator — and that you don’t have to roar to be seen. A mighty whisper can command attention.
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Thank you to Elle Becker for trusting me — and you — with her story, her words, and her time.
If this episode resonated, please consider sharing it with someone who may be carrying pain quietly or feeling unseen in their own life. Your listening, sharing, and feedback are what allow this work to grow.