Model and author Tara Moss reveals struggle with chronic pain after hip injury left her relying on a wheelchair and says it’s ‘changed her brain’
Tara Moss has been open about her struggle with pain over recent years, documenting her use of a cane and wheelchair on Instagram.
On Saturday, the model revealed that being in constant pain has changed the way her brain works.
The 47-year-old told Body+Soul Magazine: ‘I’ve come to learn that chronic pain is really neuroplasticity – brain changes – gone wrong.
Open: Tara Moss (pictured) has been open about her struggle with pain over recent years, documenting her use of a cane and wheelchair on Instagram. On Saturday, the model revealed that being in constant pain has changed the way her brain works
‘Now I want to use the brain’s adaptability to work in my favour, and retrain it not to be so loud and vocal about my pain’.
Elsewhere in the interview, the author was critical of the lack of accessible spaces for disabled people.
‘By not making our public spaces accessible for everyone, we never get to see people living with pain or disability because – guess what? – they can’t leave their houses,’ she said.
The 47-year-old told Body+Soul Magazine: ‘I’ve come to learn that chronic pain is really neuroplasticity – brain changes – gone wrong. Now I want to use the brain’s adaptability to work in my favour, and retrain it not to be so loud and vocal about my pain’
‘You might make plans and then have to say, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t manage this today’.
Tara has relied on her walking stick and wheelchair for the past three years as a result of a hip injury, and she recently shared details of her daily pain with Anh Do on his Brush With Fame series.
‘I was injured about four and a half years ago. It is something called complex regional pain syndrome, which is related to nerves and nerve damage. So that’s a part of my world,’ she said.
Critical: The author is critical of the lack of accessible spaces for disabled people. ‘By not making our public spaces accessible for everyone, we never get to see people living with pain or disability because – guess what? – they can’t leave their houses,’ she said
The writer uses a cane she calls ‘Wolfie’ and runs an Instagram account devoted to normalising walking stick use.
She has spoken publicly about her use of a walking stick, saying she wants to promote the use of mobility aids by people who ‘is not white haired’.
‘Visibility matters, so it’s important to start being more open about it,’ she told The Morning Show. ‘I was hoping that I wouldn’t need it, but now I embrace it.’
‘The walking stick helps me to be more active, enjoy my life more fully and with less pain, and that’s true with a lot of people… so I want to be out there and representing’.
Story: Tara has relied on her walking stick and wheelchair for the past three years as a result of a hip injury, and she recently shared details of her daily pain with Anh Do on his Brush With Fame series. Pictured with Anh Do
Pain: ‘I was injured about four and a half years ago. It is something called complex regional pain syndrome, which is related to nerves and nerve damage,’ she said
Tara began modelling at the age 14, before turning her attentions to writing, publishing her first novel, Fetish, in 1999.
She is now a bestselling author who has published 13 books in 18 countries and 13 languages around the world, and is considered one of Australia’s best crime novelists.
The former model lives in the Blue Mountains with her Australian poet husband Berndt Sellheim and their 10-year-old daughter Sapphira.
Read more: In this week’s Body+Soul Magazine with Tara Moss on the cover