Tag: Chronic fatigue

  • New Year’s Resolutions for 2023

    New Year’s Resolutions for 2023

    Looking over the past few years, my relationship with resolutions has been complex. In 2019 I made an intentionally ludicrous list. In 2020, I tried for sincere resolutions, and then the pandemic happened. In 2021 I refused to make plans or goals, and 2022 wasn’t much different. I must be feeling optimistic again, because I’ve…

  • Ep 63 How not to write a memoir with author Bronwyn Birdsall

    Ep 63 How not to write a memoir with author Bronwyn Birdsall

    After contracting glandular fever as a child (aka mono), Bronwyn Birdsall ended up with such bad chronic fatigue, she missed six months of school. This was at a time when there was still significant stigma surrounding the illness. Bronwyn grew up in Sydney. At age 24, she moved to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and worked…

  • The top 10 most popular episodes of James and Ashley Stay at Home

    James and Ashley Stay at Home, the podcast I co-host with author James McKenzie Watson, is about to hit 50 episodes. We’ve been exploring writing, creativity and health since way back in June 2020, and we’ve talked to an amazing variety of guests. If you live with chronic illness or have a writing or creative…

  • The relative shape of a human

    When I first met up with Monica Michelle via Zoom and asked how she was, she replied “A relative shape of a human.” I recognised the feeling. Monica hosts Explicitly Sick, one of the podcasts from the Invisible Not Broken network. She lives with Ehlers Danlos Type 3, fibromyalgia and POTS, and after having to…

  • Ep 28 Burning out with Dr Yumiko Kadota, author of Emotional Female

    Yumiko Kadota was a junior doctor and working hard towards her goal of becoming a plastic surgeon in NSW. But the demands of her workplace became increasingly extreme, and she found herself dealing with bullying, sexism and racism, as well as unreasonable hours. If anyone should know how important sleep is for the body, it…

  • The secret to fighting project inertia

    Recently I was invited to be a guest author at the Sutherland Shire Fellowship of Australian Writers, who are an absolutely lovely bunch of people. You don’t need to take my word for it. Just look at the How to Be Australian themed afternoon tea they put on. If you’re wondering, I didn’t have an…

  • Ep 20: Up against the limits of medical knowledge with author Josephine Taylor

    “I was pretty well bedridden, unable to move very easily for about the first year … I’d sort of have to shallow breathe into the tops of my lungs.” When Josephine Taylor first began to experience chronic pain, she started to reduce her commitments. She was a career woman and a mum. But gradually, she…

  • New Year’s resolutions for 2021

    If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that there’s no point making plans. I planned all kinds of things last year, including that I would be in Canada over this holiday season to finally visit my family after four years of CFS making the journey impossible. Instead I’ve spent three damp and soggy holiday weeks in…

  • Falling victim to medical gaslighting

    Since getting diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2017, one of the most helpful things has been learning specific terms that describe aspects of the illness. I think this is partly because the existence of a given term is proof I’m not imagining what I’m experiencing. It’s real, and other people have experienced it –…

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