ME/CFS in pop culture

[Tina]

I am guessing that most of you, like me, will not be up at midnight ringing in the new year. The time when I could stay up until midnight stopped on June 8, 2008.

My mother-in-law posted this today and I thought it might be a distraction to discuss me/cfs in pop culture.

 

[Merry]

I don't know enough about what is going on in pop culture. I do follow the news closely but mostly politics and science. Everyday I see headlines for articles about people in the entertainment industry, and I have no idea who these people are. So-and-so is getting a divorce, and I didn't even know they were married. I don't own a tv.

More than two years ago Russell Fleming reviewed at #MEAction a thriller by John Connolly that includes a character with ME/CFS. Russell describes John Connolly as a "best selling author." Does that make John Connolly part of pop culture?

 

[Tina]

I don't know enough about what is going on in pop culture. I do follow the news closely but mostly politics and science. Everyday I see headlines for articles about people in the entertainment industry, and I have no idea who these people are. So-and-so is getting a divorce, and I didn't even know they were married. I don't own a tv.

More than two years ago Russell Fleming reviewed at #MEAction a thriller by John Connolly that includes a character with ME/CFS. Russell describes John Connolly as a "best selling author." Does that make John Connolly part of pop culture?

I know what you mean about not recognizing pop culture references. I have two teenage daughters so I get some pop culture through osmosis. Well, actually, I choose to spend my energy having a relationship with them and that is part of having a relationship with 15 and 17 year old girls.

I don't watch regular tv any more. I stopped watching the news sometime last year.

Still, The Golden Girls is something we all remember and I was surprised to see it mentioned so many years ago.

 

[Merry]

I know what you mean about not recognizing pop culture references. I have two teenage daughters so I get some pop culture through osmosis. Well, actually, I choose to spend my energy having a relationship with them and that is part of having a relationship with 15 and 17 year old girls.

I don't watch regular tv any more. I stopped watching the news sometime last year.

Still, The Golden Girls is something we all remember and I was surprised to see it mentioned so many years ago.

Ah, teenage girls in the house. That must be both fun for you and exhausting.

Seems like in the 1990s many references to CFS appeared, some of the comments disparaging. People were reacting to the novelty of the term "chronic fatigue syndrome." Rumor had it at the time that big names in Hollywood were falling ill.

The tv series "House" had an episode in which the doctor "treats" a CFS patient with candy. I first read about this on a patient forum and didn't see the show myself. I've googled just now and found a synopsis of the episode and see that "House" ran from 2004 until 2012.
"Unrest" appears on PBS the 8th of January, and I hope that enough people will see it that awareness of how debilitating the illness is will spread from the patient community to the wider culture, enough to elicit more empathy and more action to help patients.