Can a Body in Multiple Pain Still Create a Bestseller?

Living with more than one chronic illness can be very hard. Each condition brings its own challenges, and when they come together, it can feel overwhelming.

How do people manage when their bodies and minds are all fighting different battles at once?

Breanne Randall opened up about what it’s like to write while living with chronic illness. Her story is real. She’s been dealing with conditions like scoliosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Arnold-Chiari malformation, degenerative disc disease, OCD, and ADHD since she was young. Pain and exhaustion weren’t passing phases. They shaped her daily life and made even small tasks feel like mountains.

Still, she kept writing, and over ten years, she faced hundreds of rejections from publishers. But rejection didn’t scare her. She’d already spent years sitting in waiting rooms, bracing for test results, learning how to manage unpredictable symptoms. That kind of waiting toughens you up, and so she held on to her dream.

Some days were harder than others, times when anger and frustration took over, especially after yet another doctor’s visit or a day when her body wouldn’t cooperate. But Breanne figured out how to adjust. She paced herself, built a toolkit—meditation, affirmations, prayer, yoga—whatever helped her stay grounded. She stopped expecting the pain to go away and started learning how to work around it.

That same trial-and-error mindset shaped how she approached writing. Every “no” from a publisher was frustrating, but it also got her closer to the “yes” she’d been waiting for.

When her book finally made it to store shelves, she didn’t see a finished story. She saw the doctor’s offices, the setbacks, the tiny victories like getting out of bed or finishing a single page. For Breanne, chronic illness became the reason she knew how to fight for her dream.

Living with Complex Diagnoses

Living with many different chronic illnesses in one body can be overwhelming, especially when the conditions affect completely different parts of the body and systems. For example, someone with scoliosis may deal with a curved spine that can cause pain or even breathing trouble if the curve becomes severe. In mild cases, the curve might not need treatment, but when it worsens, it may require wearing a brace or even surgery.

At the same time, a person could also have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which weakens the connective tissues like skin and joints. This means joints are overly flexible, and skin can be fragile—so fragile that stitches might not hold properly. If both conditions exist in one body, joint instability from Ehlers-Danlos might worsen the effects of scoliosis, making movement more painful or difficult to manage.

Now, imagine adding Chiari I malformation to the mix. This condition happens when the lower part of the brain pushes into the spinal canal, which can press on the brainstem and block fluid flow. That pressure can lead to headaches, balance issues, or even more serious neurological symptoms. For someone already managing the physical strain of scoliosis and joint pain from Ehlers-Danlos, the addition of Chiari malformation could make daily tasks harder and increase the risk of complications. These three conditions alone—scoliosis, Ehlers-Danlos, and Chiari malformation—could interact in ways that amplify each other’s effects.

But it doesn’t stop there, her condition includes neuropsychiatric disorders like ADHD and OCD, which impact how a person thinks, behaves, and manages attention or anxiety. ADHD can cause impulsivity, trouble focusing, and risky behavior, while OCD often leads to repetitive thoughts and routines driven by fear or anxiety.

When both are present, or when either is combined with physical conditions like those above, managing everyday life can feel like a mental and physical tug-of-war. A person might feel physically limited while also mentally overwhelmed. ADHD may push someone to act quickly or forget important tasks, while OCD may slow them down with worry and routines. These opposing forces create constant internal tension.

Putting all this together shows how having multiple chronic illnesses in one body can interact. Pain, fatigue, anxiety, and structural problems overlap, making diagnosis, treatment, and daily function more complicated.

There may be limits to which medications can be used, because one condition might increase the risks of side effects for another. And because many of these illnesses are long-term, they often require constant monitoring, lifestyle adjustments, and specialized care. When these conditions show up in one person, the burden multiplies.

Final Words

Chronic illness doesn’t follow a script. It changes plans, slows progress, and pushes limits in ways most people never see. When several conditions show up in one body, the effects don’t stay in their own lanes—they collide.

Some days bring pain, others bring fog, and sometimes, everything hits at once. But even then, there’s movement. Maybe not fast, maybe not smooth, but still forward. In that quiet fight between symptoms and effort, something lasting gets built—piece by piece, one hard day at a time.