ME/CFS South Australia Inc: The Illness People Can't See - Living With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

ME/CFS SOUTH AUSTRALIA INC

Registered Charity 3104

Email:
sacfs@sacfs.asn.au

Mailing address:
PO Box 322,
Modbury North,
South Australia 5092

Phone:
1300 128 339

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday,
10am - 4pm
(phone)

ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.

ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.

Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.

The Illness People Can't See: Living With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Monday 14 May 2018

Illnesses like ME/CFS are invisible, and the stress of
that invisibility can take a toll on the sufferers.
(Photo: Getty Images)

The illness people can’t see: living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

By Hannah Gibson
12 May 2018
© The Spinoff 2018

What is it like to have a disease that nobody can ‘see’ and which society can shame you for talking about? To mark International ME/CFS Awareness Day, Hannah Gibson writes about her experience with ME/CFS, and the struggle to have her condition legitimised in Western medicine.

When I was a young girl, my mother says that I skipped rather than walked. I stood on her knees at church and danced to the music. I pestered my father on the farm with endless questions about anything I could think of. I wanted to know everything. This did not slow me down. I want you to take a moment to imagine the amount of energy, life, and vitality this girl had.

The turning point, at 10, came after I became sick with a viral infection that was not considered dangerous. Yet as time went on, I never seemed to recover; rather I developed severe migraines, muscular pain, extreme fatigue, cyclical vomiting and a myriad of other symptoms that left me sleeping around the clock.