Intending to write another column about the treatment of #ME/CFS patients this week, pegged to new research findings on the biological basis. My question for sufferers:
Are any of you still being offered inappropriate (psych/GET etc) "treatments"?
Please email george at monbiot dot info. Thanks.
Are any of you still being offered inappropriate (psych/GET etc) "treatments"?
Please email george at monbiot dot info. Thanks.
September 21, 2026 at 1:07 PM
September 19, 2026 at 8:47 AM
I didn't know! I'm addicted to velvet cushions, the squishier the better.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
August 29, 2026 at 11:47 AM
I didn't know! I'm addicted to velvet cushions, the squishier the better.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
This is true. Sadly, I have to be careful and make sure I don't attempt to carry too much, these days. #TheChronicLife
August 26, 2026 at 12:27 PM
This is true. Sadly, I have to be careful and make sure I don't attempt to carry too much, these days. #TheChronicLife
I wonder whether I'll ever make it to F&M in person ever again ...
**even deeper sigh**
#TheChronicLife #TheCarerLife
**even deeper sigh**
#TheChronicLife #TheCarerLife
August 14, 2026 at 9:40 AM
I wonder whether I'll ever make it to F&M in person ever again ...
**even deeper sigh**
#TheChronicLife #TheCarerLife
**even deeper sigh**
#TheChronicLife #TheCarerLife
I became unregulated yesterday and I’m still feeling the effects. #TheChronicLife
August 14, 2026 at 8:49 AM
I became unregulated yesterday and I’m still feeling the effects. #TheChronicLife
So happy that you liked the watercolour.
My flare started about this time last year, about six months into looking after my mother—surely not a coincidence. It's never really gone away, and this heat has made it worse. You give me hope that improvement is possible.
#TheChronicLife
My flare started about this time last year, about six months into looking after my mother—surely not a coincidence. It's never really gone away, and this heat has made it worse. You give me hope that improvement is possible.
#TheChronicLife
August 13, 2026 at 9:06 AM
So happy that you liked the watercolour.
My flare started about this time last year, about six months into looking after my mother—surely not a coincidence. It's never really gone away, and this heat has made it worse. You give me hope that improvement is possible.
#TheChronicLife
My flare started about this time last year, about six months into looking after my mother—surely not a coincidence. It's never really gone away, and this heat has made it worse. You give me hope that improvement is possible.
#TheChronicLife
Hope you’re having a good day.
Made a cake. Made lunch. Now at a complete standstill. 🙄
#TheChronicLife
Made a cake. Made lunch. Now at a complete standstill. 🙄
#TheChronicLife
August 8, 2026 at 2:31 PM
Hope you’re having a good day.
Made a cake. Made lunch. Now at a complete standstill. 🙄
#TheChronicLife
Made a cake. Made lunch. Now at a complete standstill. 🙄
#TheChronicLife
I suspect strongly that I was indeed bitten back in 2004, when no one was talking about Lyme Disease, and that's what triggered the meningitis-like infection that felled me for 3 months and all the health problems I have had since.
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife
July 6, 2026 at 2:07 PM
I suspect strongly that I was indeed bitten back in 2004, when no one was talking about Lyme Disease, and that's what triggered the meningitis-like infection that felled me for 3 months and all the health problems I have had since.
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife
New doc: You're articulate about your condition.
Me: Communicating with docs who treat me as an unreliable witness to my own condition is a second language. It's hard to feign ignorance to protect an ego so big it could get me killed.
@jakesidwell.bsky.social
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
Me: Communicating with docs who treat me as an unreliable witness to my own condition is a second language. It's hard to feign ignorance to protect an ego so big it could get me killed.
@jakesidwell.bsky.social
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
June 30, 2026 at 4:50 PM
New doc: You're articulate about your condition.
Me: Communicating with docs who treat me as an unreliable witness to my own condition is a second language. It's hard to feign ignorance to protect an ego so big it could get me killed.
@jakesidwell.bsky.social
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
Me: Communicating with docs who treat me as an unreliable witness to my own condition is a second language. It's hard to feign ignorance to protect an ego so big it could get me killed.
@jakesidwell.bsky.social
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
'I ran out of energy for modern medicine, and I had to decide for my own mental wellness to loosen my grip on it all.'
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife #LongCovid
amythetonic.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife #LongCovid
amythetonic.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
Why do we have to turn on each other?
My thoughts on the recent Wired article and the hubbub it's created among us
amythetonic.substack.com
June 8, 2026 at 9:22 AM
'I ran out of energy for modern medicine, and I had to decide for my own mental wellness to loosen my grip on it all.'
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife #LongCovid
amythetonic.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives #TheChronicLife #LongCovid
amythetonic.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...
Can I make a plea? If you know anyone whose chronic health condition has flared up in the hot weather, please remember that even when temperatures return to 'normal,' their condition may not do so for days or weeks. Thank you.
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheAbleistSociety
#TheChronicLife
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheAbleistSociety
#TheChronicLife
May 28, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Can I make a plea? If you know anyone whose chronic health condition has flared up in the hot weather, please remember that even when temperatures return to 'normal,' their condition may not do so for days or weeks. Thank you.
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheAbleistSociety
#TheChronicLife
#InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
#TheAbleistSociety
#TheChronicLife
"Brain: I see you're are trying to sleep, can I offer a selection of your worst memories from the last 10 years."
Credit Unknown
Image of Kermit The Frog lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. (Much like me every night!)
#MySeveralWorlds #DeepThoughts #TheChronicLife #SpoonieProbs
Credit Unknown
Image of Kermit The Frog lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. (Much like me every night!)
#MySeveralWorlds #DeepThoughts #TheChronicLife #SpoonieProbs
April 25, 2026 at 4:34 PM
"Brain: I see you're are trying to sleep, can I offer a selection of your worst memories from the last 10 years."
Credit Unknown
Image of Kermit The Frog lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. (Much like me every night!)
#MySeveralWorlds #DeepThoughts #TheChronicLife #SpoonieProbs
Credit Unknown
Image of Kermit The Frog lying in bed and staring at the ceiling. (Much like me every night!)
#MySeveralWorlds #DeepThoughts #TheChronicLife #SpoonieProbs
All this kind of thing takes energy that I simply don't have, every single day.
It assumes that everyone is baseline 'able' at all times.
And we aren't.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
It assumes that everyone is baseline 'able' at all times.
And we aren't.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
April 25, 2026 at 11:09 AM
All this kind of thing takes energy that I simply don't have, every single day.
It assumes that everyone is baseline 'able' at all times.
And we aren't.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
It assumes that everyone is baseline 'able' at all times.
And we aren't.
#TheChronicLife #InvisibleIllnessVisibleLives
Yes! The end of the Christmas and New Year break hit me particularly hard this year. I wished I could have kept the twelve days, too, but I still wouldn't have been ready for the ableist expectations of a back-to-work world. When you're living #TheChronicLife, it feels like a physical assault.
April 24, 2026 at 10:12 AM
Yes! The end of the Christmas and New Year break hit me particularly hard this year. I wished I could have kept the twelve days, too, but I still wouldn't have been ready for the ableist expectations of a back-to-work world. When you're living #TheChronicLife, it feels like a physical assault.
Thoughts from yesterday’s visit. It’s beyond time that all in health & social care learnt what ‘energy-limiting condition’ means.
Neither the song of the skylark nor the scent of the wild garlic can palliate the wilful ineptitude or incredulous cross-examination.
#TheChronicLife #NatureCureNuance
Neither the song of the skylark nor the scent of the wild garlic can palliate the wilful ineptitude or incredulous cross-examination.
#TheChronicLife #NatureCureNuance
April 17, 2026 at 6:24 AM
Thoughts from yesterday’s visit. It’s beyond time that all in health & social care learnt what ‘energy-limiting condition’ means.
Neither the song of the skylark nor the scent of the wild garlic can palliate the wilful ineptitude or incredulous cross-examination.
#TheChronicLife #NatureCureNuance
Neither the song of the skylark nor the scent of the wild garlic can palliate the wilful ineptitude or incredulous cross-examination.
#TheChronicLife #NatureCureNuance
"You will burn and you will burn out; but you will be healed and come back again."
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Spring at Veneux-Nadon
🎨 Alfred Sisley (1882)
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Spring at Veneux-Nadon
🎨 Alfred Sisley (1882)
April 16, 2026 at 2:57 PM
The Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Conference. This terrible trio are speaking on #LongCovid. We are absolutely nowhere! They will spread their disinformation to hundreds of psychiatrists all of whom will most probably nod and smile. A psychiatrist friend is going. She’ll try to subvert.
April 16, 2026 at 11:22 AM
Adding a skylark, the hum of the fridge & freezer, and the thing I never talk about but which is always with me, the white noise of tinnitus. #TheChronicLife
April 12, 2026 at 9:23 AM
Adding a skylark, the hum of the fridge & freezer, and the thing I never talk about but which is always with me, the white noise of tinnitus. #TheChronicLife
I can hear the whirr of next door's lawn mower, the sigh of the wind, the twitter of house sparrows, the song of a dunnock, the ticking of the clock. It's all very soporific. #TheChronicLife
April 12, 2026 at 9:09 AM
I can hear the whirr of next door's lawn mower, the sigh of the wind, the twitter of house sparrows, the song of a dunnock, the ticking of the clock. It's all very soporific. #TheChronicLife
Books received in the post today (without the aid of a tripod—sorry).
#ReadingPoets
#TheChronicLife
@honnopress.bsky.social @serenbooks.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
#NatureWriting
#BookSky
#ReadingPoets
#TheChronicLife
@honnopress.bsky.social @serenbooks.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
#NatureWriting
#BookSky
March 25, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Books received in the post today (without the aid of a tripod—sorry).
#ReadingPoets
#TheChronicLife
@honnopress.bsky.social @serenbooks.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
#NatureWriting
#BookSky
#ReadingPoets
#TheChronicLife
@honnopress.bsky.social @serenbooks.bsky.social @littletollerbooks.bsky.social
#NatureWriting
#BookSky
The current contents of my uk.bookshop.org shopping basket. I am paralysed by the knowledge that I can't possibly buy them all, now ...
#BookSky #NatureWriting #TheChronicLife
#BookSky #NatureWriting #TheChronicLife
March 3, 2026 at 9:11 AM
The current contents of my uk.bookshop.org shopping basket. I am paralysed by the knowledge that I can't possibly buy them all, now ...
#BookSky #NatureWriting #TheChronicLife
#BookSky #NatureWriting #TheChronicLife
every single day. How much of a fight it is to simply exist."
Credit: Sarah_SC.10
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
#ChronicallyComplex #TheChronicLife
Credit: Sarah_SC.10
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
#ChronicallyComplex #TheChronicLife
February 20, 2026 at 9:12 PM
every single day. How much of a fight it is to simply exist."
Credit: Sarah_SC.10
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
#ChronicallyComplex #TheChronicLife
Credit: Sarah_SC.10
#MySeveralWorlds #ChronicTruths
#ChronicallyComplex #TheChronicLife
Got the corrections in in the calm hours as owls yelled outside but in this pain flare and its can’t get to sleep then can’t wake up mode ran out of functional day light hours to get further than flower prep and forgot to ring phleb AGAIN! #TheChronicLife
February 6, 2026 at 10:20 PM
Got the corrections in in the calm hours as owls yelled outside but in this pain flare and its can’t get to sleep then can’t wake up mode ran out of functional day light hours to get further than flower prep and forgot to ring phleb AGAIN! #TheChronicLife