Spring in my garden is a riot of color. I caught the above pic of my poppies just past their peak after deciding to replace them and wanting to document the process. Because uprooting a cheery, bright colored perennial that makes me happy in order to take the chance that something else might do an ...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS / ME / SEID)
Chrillog #3: Avdeep’s Chronic Fatigue Story (“I Feel Better Than I Have in 15 Years”)
This is Avdeep's chronic fatigue story, a chronic illness also known as CFS, for chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis or "ME", ME/CFS, and CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome). I call her story a #Chrillog, which stands for “chronic illness weblogs,” in which we ...
The Fatigue Super Conference: 40+ Classes on ME/CFS, Long-Covid, Chronic Lyme and more (Free Online Summit)
Even though I'm a doctor myself, I felt anxiety when my primary care doctor retired and I had to find someone new. By that point I was 15 years into my illness, had consulted dozens of health care professionals in all kinds of specialties who were well respected in their fields but whose ways of ...
Chrillog #2: Harper’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Story (ME/CFS)
This is Harper’s chronic fatigue syndrome story, also known as CFS, myalgic encephalomyelitis or "ME", ME/CFS, and CFIDS (chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome). I call her story a #Chrillog, which stands for “chronic illness weblogs,” in which we look at our journeys through a nervous ...
ACREs III: Chronic Illness Flares, Triggers and Shame (My ME/CFS Story)
I don't really "want" to write about shame and other difficult emotions because it means having to feel into these feelings. And as many of you know, shame, in particular, can feel annihilating. But the origins of shame are sneaky and we tend to think it's because something is wrong with US. The ...
Planting Seeds for Healing 8 Categories of Adversity (and Chronic Illness)
There are empowering, encouraging things about understanding the role of adversity and trauma as risk factors for chronic illness. Among the most important are that it provides opportunities. Opportunities for making sense of symptoms. Opportunities for removing blame. And opportunities for planting ...
Book Recommendation: Are You a WOMI?
Are you a WOMI (a woman with a mysterious illness)? Or a MOMI (a man with a mysterious illness)? A person of any orientation with an autoimmune disease? Or chronic fatigue syndrome (which research is beginning to suggest may also be an autoimmune illness)? Or who is not responding to treatment, or ...
My Adventures in Healing Multigenerational Trauma and Chronic Illness with Systemic Family Constellations
In the few months before writing this article, I had an exacerbation of symptoms which I came to recognize as a trauma response. It had slowed me down to a crawl and to the point where I couldn’t even write a blog post. Here, I describe how symptoms can stem from trauma in a family system and ...
IIA. ME/CFS and The Cell Danger Response: How Adversity Triggers the Freeze Response and How the CDR Gets Stuck (Includes Surveys)
I've described how chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a disease driven by a cell danger response (CDR) and a nervous system caught in a threat response of freeze and some of us with an underlying fight/flight response (wired and tired) in Part 1. This second post describes how the CDR gets stuck ...