How To Deal With A Chronic Illness Diagnosis

I often compare dealing with a chronic illness is like dealing with a death. Because, in a way, that's exactly what it is. Your life, once diagnosed, is forever changed, and that is a huge loss you can never get back. It is the death of a life you once knew.

You Are Not Alone: Chronic Fatigue And Guilt

As a chronic fatigue sufferer, one of my hardest emotional struggles is the feeling of guilt. I am not the person I once was and my mind really struggles with that thought and so there are many times when I let people down.

5 Tips for Getting Outdoors in Autumn with Chronic Fatigue #HotterWalkies

As someone with a chronic illness, I know that getting outdoors is both a huge challenge and an important thing to do. Add the cold and varying weather temperatures, Autumn can be a difficult time of year to get outside. Finding a balance between getting some vitamin D and not overdoing it isn't easy. I also have a little sausage dog who adores her walks and whilst my husband does the majority of them, it is a joy for me to be able to go along with them and watch her skipping in delight at all the pleasures of walking outdoors. I thought I'd put together a few tips for getting outdoors in Autumn that I have come across over the years, which can enable people with chronic fatigue to enjoy their walks without overdoing it.

How I Was Diagnosed With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

It is now nearly six years since I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. After thinking initially recovery would be a couple of years, I can't believe I am now so far down the road. Today I thought I'd share my diagnosis progress as CFS can be a difficult illness to diagnosis due to there being no specific test for it.

I have always been a tired person - my mum would have to drag me out of bed most mornings through my teenage years and in my working life I would often have to go to sleep in my car on my dinner break to make it through the day. I've been known to get home from work at six, go to bed until nine and then go for a night out. I always knew I needed more sleep than most but never saw it as anything to be concerned about.

In my early twenties

Returning To Blogging

It has been fourteen months since I wrote this post and said goodbye to blogging. At the time things were all too much and I couldn't manage to keep up with every in my day to day life, let alone throw blogging on top of that. Whilst I gave up blogging, I still uploaded to YouTube as much as I could, yet by January this year that had pretty much stopped.

I'd like to say things have become easier since then and that is why I've decided to write again, but it's not. Everything it still pretty hard going and managing chronic fatigue is definitely a challenge that most days I don't feel I'm up to. Yet here I am. 

I'm not making a plan, and I'm not committing, but I do feel very lost and lonely in this life - at home in bed a lot of the time with little to keep me company, and I have missed writing. I find it helps me process with things and I also want to be able to share my life in some form or another, even if it is only for me or the children to look back on one day.

So here I am, tapping my fingers on the keys, trying to get my words out of my stuffed up head. Whilst my CFS therapist disagrees, this year has felt like one of the worst I can remember and it really gets me down. I have spent far too many hours in bed, sleeping or just wishing for it so I can get away from trying to cope. This blog will see a change too as I move away from parenting two little children to being a mum of more independent and grown children and wanting to share more about my own life. I am hoping to talk about mental health and chronic illness by sharing my own journey but also offering any advice and support I may have to offer others in a similar situation.

I hope those of you who are old-time friends are still around to say hello to and to anyone who is new to me or my blog, hello! I promise to try and be upbeat as much as I can, but sometimes you just have to be truthful.