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    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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Stranded on Mars

RYO

Senior Member
Messages
350
Location
USA
I recently watched "The Martian" starring Matt Damon. I thought the movie was a good metaphor for how CFS/ME patients feel stranded and isolated. It's a shame we don't have a "mission control" to help us. I am still praying for a rescue mission so I can get off this desolate planet called ME/CFS.
 

RYO

Senior Member
Messages
350
Location
USA
@PNR2008 Your friends really don't want to leave you but over time that's what happens. You can't even blame them. So there you are taking stock of your resources and doing whatever to survive. You try anything in desperation which sometimes blows up in your face. And lastly, you have to face the stark reality of your vulnerability and mortality every day.

Watching Forgotten Plague for me was like finally getting a line of communication with the rest of the world. You can spend hours trying to explain in words our plight but the documentary allows outsiders a glimpse into our dark world.
 

L'engle

moogle
Messages
3,200
Location
Canada
Your friends really don't want to leave you but over time that's what happens.

Your real friends will not leave you completely, even if you rarely or never see them in person. My best friends, though they are few, never doubt my condition or push me aside.

Please don't lose hope that it is possible to have real connections with other people, however infrequent or virtual in nature.:hug:
 

Old Bones

Senior Member
Messages
808
My television metaphor for how ME/CFS patients often feel is the episode "Schisms" in Season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992). This was during my "living on the couch" days. Television was a major pass time. I hadn't realized yet that watching TV was contributing to my extreme fatigue and other symptoms.

I often think of this episode, years later, when describing how I feel waking up in the morning -- that I was abducted by aliens overnight in order for them to perform medical experiments on me (eg. dislocating or severing my limbs, stabbing me with sharp probes).