An excellent idea for a thread.
I 'returned' to this site in response to the astonishing ignorance displayed about agoraphobia on the thread about Jemma Pixie Higson's version of 'Asleep', first delegated to an 'alter' 'Wayne Rooney', before the whole 'BrummieBoy' crew piled in. You might wanna read it and reflect on the 'support' offered on this thread by one particularly egregious prat in this ya intarweb forums commoonity....
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/content/847-Jemma-Pixie-Hixon-covers-Asleep#comments
It's a serious topic. We've had some uplift of consciousness here in the UK with regard to visible physical disabilities as a result of The Paralympics but I'm not sure how long that will last. Of course, if you've been in bed for years with M.E then walking down to the kitchen is an Olympic achievement. A 'mentalist Olympics' would also be fun with pole vaulting for vertigo sufferers, marathon for agoraphobics and contact martial arts for PTSD war veterans, etc.
We have a sinister thing happening here where a foreign corporation, ATOS, have been brought in by the UK government to 'redefine' illness so that even terminal cancer sufferers are being deemed 'fit to work', never mind those with 'imaginary invisible illness'. I kid you not: it's a total 'arbeit mach frei' situation. We've bailed out the banksters so everyone else has to pay, some maybe with their lives. I have a real feeling that the next big Occupy/Anonymous flashpoint in the UK could be based around bringing ATOS crashing down to the ground: not that I'm percolating an insurrection meme or anything! Honest, gov! etc.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2...ms-disability-assessment-regime?newsfeed=true
I've a 'dog in this race': I was a victim of Tarantino-esque violent crime and became totally agoraphobic as a result. Looking back it's hard to understand how I got in quite such a mess with PTSD, booze, prescription drugs. It was like being in a mash-up of Memento & Inception. Totally changed my life. I got a shed load of compensation and I'm near enough retired now so don't really need to give a fc-uk on a personal level, unless the whole financial system comes crashing down. But one of my sister's is disabled and she faces haters every time she pops out for fags. Thanks for that, Walliams. Thanks for 'Andy the fake wheelchair DLA claimant'. Your comedy really improved life for folk like my sister who have to deal with the real 'Little Britain'. Not everyone is an uber-faux-gay-'stray' who can swim the Thames for charidee! Your riposte to Frankie Boyle's mermaid taunt rang hollow, mt8....Shame on Morrissey for letting you, Ross and Brand wind us all up at The Roundhouse...
Mind you, Morrissey's got a few 'issues' with regard to visible disability, NSAM etc: even if his younger incarnation was pretty cool with the whole invisible 'Still Ill' depressive stuff. Hardly Leonard Cohen, but good nonetheless.
I also tested positive for Lyme Disease which explained that a lot of the 'depression' and cognitive weirdness had nothing to do with the psychological PTSD-violent crime shit, but was the result of spending too much time in shorts on Dartmoor. I don't risk baring my skin to ticks outdoors in the UK anymore. Lyme's related disease is scary stuff.
I admire Joni Mitchell's involvement in raising the profile of Morgellons:
http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2472
I was dismissed as a 'nutcase' for a while. I was lucky in that it ended with a show trial and 23 years in jail for the perpetrator so there was no real doubt why my psyche has been 'troubled' by events. Some of the Jury were still having 'counselling' two years after the trial as they were so traumatized by the details. But not everyone who's 'still ill' has such a compelling and satisfying denouement. Invisible illness trashed my life, trashed my family: and if we didn't have the NHS here, I'd almost certainly have ended up bankrupt and homeless to fund all the tests, treatments and therapy that got the show back on the road. It's good to be well again. Good to have 'revenge/justice'..... whatever. But it makes me seriously angry when people dismiss folk as malingerers or fantasists just because they don't understand the context and the aetiology of the illness. The biosociophysical model really makes sense to me now as an explanation for years of illness:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychosocial_model
@KenzieW. Good luck with POTS. Hope you find continuing relief even if a complete cure eludes you. It took me years to get better but there was a specific trigger of violent crime that triggered my 'downward spiral' which makes it easier in retrospect. It must be a real pain in the pisser to have your life put on 'pause/interrupt' by an illness that either isn't recognized, is hard to diagnose, or where the cause is considered controversial or 'imaginary'.
regards (and soon 'goodbye)
'BrummieBoy': The Fisher-King-of the B.C.F.C Zulus
@CG Good luck to you as well! Through Jane Siberry, The Universe extends to you 'An Invitation To Be Well'. Our BrummieGurl goddess Sharon 'Malvinha Druidica' McCormick reviewed the 'music healing process' here:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/janesiberry8
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jane-siberry/the-music-diaries_b_1093847.html
