My friends don’t get it. My partner doesn’t get it. My family doesn’t get it. I hear these sentiments a lot from the clients I coach and from readers of my blog. When the people in our inner circle don’t understand our suffering, we may feel isolated, frustrated, misunderstood, and painfully, acutely alone as a result. Since we’re all friends here, I’ll just put it frankly: It stinks. I recently spent some time with a friend who has fibromyalgia, a chronic illness that causes long-term, widespread pain and tenderness throughout the body. She works...















