Firestormm
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23 February 2013
The fog of fatigue I lived in for 16 years has lifted at last: How Roy Lichtenstein's muse has conquered chronic ME, thanks to psychotherapy and her very patient husband
- Erica Wexler, 43, suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME
- She overcame her condition with through psychotherapy and with the support of her husband, rock star Andy Partridge
Roy Lichtenstein’s nudes frolic on a primary colour beach, as bouncy as the beach balls they hold. The pop artist, the subject of a major retrospective at London’s Tate Modern, based these portraits from the early Nineties on his then muse, Erica Wexler.
She was 22 – Lichtenstein was 70 – and admits the pictures remind her of how she once felt. ‘I was full of energy, emotions and drama. Roy loved dramatic women,’ she says. ‘We had a lot of fun together, dancing in his studio.’
But for much of her life Erica, now 43, has felt far from ebullient, having battled the debilitating neurological condition chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), once known as ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis).
Now living in Bath, she says the illness forced her to postpone a promising career as a singer and scuppered hopes of children.
It started when she was 26. She had just signed a recording contract and was in a new relationship with XTC singer Andy Partridge who, at 59, is still her partner.
‘During that year I became ever more fatigued. I tried to push on through it, but it got to a point where my legs wouldn’t support my body. I was clammy and flu-ey all the time. A doctor diagnosed ME and I had to default on the contract. It felt as if my career had imploded and me along with it,’ says Erica.CFS/ME first made the news in the mid-Eighties, when doctors began to report on young patients who had inexplicable flu-like symptoms.Medics were sceptical as to whether these young professionals were physically ill and it was quickly dubbed ‘yuppie flu’.‘One common symptom is a feeling of debilitating tiredness,’ says Professor Leslie Findley, consultant neurologist at the Queen’s Hospital Romford, Essex, who treats severe cases.‘Others experience painful muscles and joints, impaired mobility, headaches, disordered sleep, gastric disturbances, poor memory and concentration.’‘Outwardly you may look ok, but you’re in a mental fog and your limbs are burning,’ says Erica.The current thinking is that CFS is a physical and mental illness. In ten per cent of cases, it’s linked to viral infection, such as glandular fever, hepatitis or parvovirus. Other triggers include surgery, an accident or physical and emotional trauma.Erica believes her tumultuous upbringing at the hands of her father Norman was to blame.The Oscar-nominated screenwriter of hit movies Serpico and Saturday Night Fever was a manic depressive whose psychotic episodes wreaked havoc on the household.His exploits are the stuff of movie industry legend. He’d throw furniture from hotel room windows, terrorise those he was working with and was once arrested for threatening to assassinate the then-president Richard Nixon. He repeatedly spent time in mental health institutions, often sent there by his daughters.‘Looking back, I see how my family was dysfunctional,’ Erica says. ‘Things were falling apart and I felt it was somehow my fault,’ says Erica.Life did not improve when her parents divorced and her mother Francine remarried.
‘They were always fighting. Mom would subject me to these great onslaughts of rage. I was constantly fearful of what might happen next. Over time, that can mess up your immune system, leaving you vulnerable to illness.’Perhaps unsurprisingly, Erica’s first significant relationship was with the ‘father figure’ Lichtenstein. ‘I’d not had a proper father and you might say I found one for a while in him.’Erica believes her symptoms had been creeping up on her before she met Partridge in 1996, at a New York party. It was love at first sight. ‘He said, “Why don’t you come and stay with me in England?” So I did. I came, collapsed, and here I am still.‘Andy was very patient with me. Some weeks I would barely get out of bed. But he lives a quiet life, so we managed.’After her diagnosis, Erica self-medicated with extra-strength painkillers. ‘I’ve tried acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicines, vitamin and anti-viral drips, allergy diets, oxygen tanks, ozone therapy, spiritual healing, massage therapy, yoga ... when you’re desperate you’ll try anything.’The NHS recommends a combination of physiotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and a treatment known as ‘pacing’, which involves teaching sufferers to know when to stop and rest.The CFS treatment centre at London’s Barts hospital is staffed by psychiatrists, immunological experts, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. There are around 250,000 UK sufferers, and Barts receives 300 new referrals each year. ‘Every case is treated according to their symptoms,’ says Professor Peter White, consultant psychiatrist at Barts CFS treatment centre. ‘If the patient is in pain, we prescribe painkillers. If they have problems sleeping, we look at why. Some might simply need physiotherapy, others a combination of treatments.’However, specialist services are still patchy. A survey of 2,000 patients found that 74 per cent had suffered from CFS for five years or more, with 49 per cent having been ill for more than ten years.Erica says: ‘Cognitive behavioural therapy helped, because it offers a structure with which to manage your energy. Meditation’s great, too.’ By 2006, her fog had started to lift and she began to record the longed-for album, which will finally be released next month.‘I still have episodes of fatigue,’ she says. ‘But you can’t get stuck at a point of bitterness and resentment or the rest of your life will be ruined. I try to look on the bright side of the dark side.’Ercia Wexler’s debut album ‘Sunlit Night’ - is released March 18th on Folly MusicVisit ericawexler.com
