Simon
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This is a brilliant, profound and moving piece by former journalist Lucy Mayhew. It made me cry in places but it's uplifting too. It's been a great year for pieces about living with ME (not to mention brilliant pieces about this illness more generally - thanks, @charles shepherd - and research - thanks David Tuller and more) and perhaps this is the finest.
Living with chronic fatigue: How I wish my friends would treat me (Daily Telegraph)
Lucy Mayhew
Thank you, Lucy Mayhew
Living with chronic fatigue: How I wish my friends would treat me (Daily Telegraph)
Lucy Mayhew
...Bear Grylls and I have virtually nothing in common – the survival expert has a GTI turbo-charged body, whereas seven years ago, mine became my jailor.
Grylls recently name-checked kindness as an overlooked quality “critical to survival,” and in the midst of paralysing physical pain, fear and despair I have learned how true this observation is. But also, because compassion doesn't cure suffering, it is absurdly easy to neglect precisely when it is most urgently needed.
...St Augustine said that physical pain was the greatest evil and he was right. I didn’t have a humour bypass or decide it might be diverting to become a hermit for almost a decade. I am extremely fond of life but this version needs returning to sender.
It's quite a long piece and I've only quoted a tiny amount, but I would say it's well worth the effort.Five practical ways to show compassion to someone who is continually ill [expanded in the article]
- Be patient, and constant
- Share your life
- Be sensitive
- Avoid belittling commentary
- Show you believe
Thank you, Lucy Mayhew
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