Health Archives - Memoir Magazine

2 minute watch/Aging/Alzheimer's/Featured/Health/Loss/Memory/Mental Health/nonfiction/On Memory

Your Greatest Fear by Sherri Wright

In the United States about six million people over 65 live with Alzheimer’s disease. You wonder how much your mother knew and if she suffered. Looking back, ...

Make Me Cry/Healing/5 Minute Read/ACEs/Being Body/Featured/Family/Food/Girls & Women/Health/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Society

The Body History by Jessica Marks

My body is a series of numbers. I weigh 204, I wear a size 16. My waist is eight inches smaller than my hips, my breasts are 38B. I should probably go up to a 4...

Dementia/12 minute read/Adversity/Aging/Alzheimer's/Art/Being Body/Family/Food/Grief/Health/Identity/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/Memory/nonfiction/Sexism/Society/Survival

“Iris on My Mind” by Odeta Xheka

Most days, I manage to distract myself from the horror of losing my bearing and blurring the lines in the fog of forgetfulness. I carry the markers for Alzheime...

The Hope of Better Hearing Aids by Rosann Tung

I try to cool the heat in my cheeks that her sarcastic “wise, rich daughter” comment brings on. Her walker embarrasses me, too – unsightly, attention-seeking, d...

3 Minute Read/Anorexia/Featured/Family/Health/Identity/Literature/Mental Health/Mental Illness/nonfiction/trauma

Harrowing by Natalie Coufal

In the black-and-white photo I hold, Dad delivers his salutatorian speech to a small crowd. Dated May 1959, the picture is unremarkable except for Dad’s skeleta...

7 Minute Read/AIDS/Featured/Health/HIV/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/nonfiction

1 in 300 by Cephas Barbosa

Formally coming out at 19 in the mid-’80s was a catastrophe ruled by fear. Fear, fear, fear. Fear of HIV and AIDS. It was a panic that molded my life and ruled ...

10 Minute Read/Adversity/Being Body/Featured/Girls & Women/Health/Inspirational/Love/Man in The Mirror/Mental Health/nonfiction/personal essay/Sexism/Society

The Shock of Self Love by Sylvie Beauvais

I traveled between France and the United States every summer, and in France I was beautiful, and in America I was ugly and people told me so. Beauty as a cultur...

3 Minute Read/Being Body/Escape/Flash/Health/Mental Health/nonfiction/Secrets/Survival

Dancing with the Darkness of My Soul by Susan Moore

This is why people do it. This is why they cut.

Adversity/Featured/Health/Inspirational/Justice/LGBTQ/Love/men/nonfiction/personal essay/Relationships/Society

In Sickness and in Health by Scott Bane

Right in the middle of some everyday activity, I’m overtaken by a sense of joy, peace, or contentment. The window often closes up just as quickly as it has ope...

10 Minute Listen/Addiction/Anorexia/Audible/Being Body/Health/nonfiction/Survival/trauma

Ned by Author Madison Welborne

An audio memoir exploring anorexia. Madison is not gaining weight and must be subjected to the tube.

#Recovery Runner Up/10 Minute Read/Addiction/Health/Man in The Mirror/nonfiction/Recovery

A Week Among the Rest by Thomas Kirk

“Have you taken anything or had a drink in the last twenty four hours?” Tim, the intake nurse asked. “We’re going to take a sample, so no need to lie.” I lied a...

Healing Through Storytelling by Melissa Zook

The practice of medicine is based on the physician’s ability to gather story from the patient. Our story is our human identity and our humanity. It is also the ...

7 Minute Read/Adversity/Being Body/Family/Health/Inspirational/nonfiction/Parenting/personal essay

Love Through the Extraordinary: Marriage, Parenting, and Family in the Face of Rare Disease by Rebecca Thereault

Movements flickered on the screen in the dark of the ultrasound room like stars in the sky when we first heard her diagnosis. He tried to hold my hand as they s...

5 Minute Read/Health/LGBTQ/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/nonfiction/personal essay/Society

T-Minus 20 by Will McMillan

His Grindr profile showed he was nearby; less than 1000 feet from where I was walking. He was in a hotel. Was visiting town. He was looking for now, and now wor...

Savasana by Heather Gemmen Wilson

When I was slim, I communicated with my whole body in large, confident gestures; I enjoyed being front and center. But I’m no longer thin. To deal with difficul...

5 Minute Read/Cancer/Family/Girls & Women/Health/Memoir/nonfiction

Surviving With Grace by Judith P. Bullis

It is not what I expect. Lined up side by side are chairs with patients already hooked up to IVs, and one empty chair for Katie, a giant vacuum of space waiting...

20 Minute Read/Aging/Alzheimer's/Featured/Family/Funny/Grief/Health/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/Love/Memory/Mental Health/nonfiction/On Memory/personal essay

Debris by Cindy Bradley

After hip surgery, my father’s memory is all over the map. As he recuperates in rehab, he tells us he’s been to Spain, England, Oakland and even Kabul, all in t...

10 Minute Read/ACEs/Childhood/Family/Health/Loss/Man in The Mirror/Mental Health/nonfiction/On Memory/Regret/writing/2018 Recovery Essay Award Winners

How to Write a Healing Story by Author Cameron Shenassa

I have a student who is failing my class. He wants to be writer, but he comes to me and tells me that he can’t write because he is depressed. He is wearing paja...