Young and Chronic
Book summary
Young and Chronic is an intimate and empowering memoir that traces Cara K. Richardson’s decades-long journey with an invisible condition. The college car accident that seemed to start it all instead revealed what had always been there: an unstable body, misunderstood symptoms, and a condition medicine failed to name for years.
Hollywood ambition collided with an unpredictable body, personal losses reopened old grief, and countless therapies offered only temporary relief—until a breakthrough diagnosis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) reframed the story.
Blending candid storytelling with evidence-based insights and practical advice, the book spotlights the realities of hypermobility and chronic pain while charting a path forward. Through resilience, adaptation, and advocacy, Young and Chronic demonstrates how to stop chasing cures and instead build a life that works with the body rather than against it.
More than a memoir of hardship, it is a roadmap for others navigating complex conditions—validating their experiences, offering tangible strategies, and inviting readers to become their own “body architects.”