I Couldn't Care Less: Less Shattered Myth
Created | Updated Dec 1, 2013
Less Shattered Myth
Earlier this week (as I write) singer James Arthur cancelled a series of shows citing 'acute exhaustion'. This comes at the end of a prolonged row sparked after he called a fellow performer 'queer' in 'diss track'1 and was heavily criticised for it on twitter. An official statement said that he has been advised to rest 'for several days' by his Doctor. Gosh. Several days. That does sound acute.
In the same week cricketer Jonathan Trott has flown home from Australia where the England team are playing the Ashes tournament due to a 'long standing stress related condition'. He leaves, however, amidst talk of depression and mental illness, and of a long-standing. Now I'm not in a position to judge the problems faced by either man, but there's no denying that stress and exhaustion have in the past been seen, rightly or wrongly, as excuses, or euphemisms for 'I'm too stoned/drunk, 'I'm keeping out of the limelight for a bit' or 'I can't be bothered'. Perhaps we understand mental illness better these days, but how well do we really know acute fatigue?
Well, I was going to tell you myself, I've seen a bit, but then I thought I'd consult an expert, so I asked my wife. My wife, you see, suffers, as many do in one form or another, from Chronic Fatigue. She won't get over it in a week. She won't, as far as we know, get over it ever. She will always be tired, she always had been. You know how you are when you're really tired? You know how your coordination becomes a bit ropey, how you'd better pull over and get out of the car, how concentration gets a bit harder and you can struggle just to stand up and keep your eyes open? Well, that's Chronic Fatigue, only it's always. You wake up tired, you go through the day tired, you go to sleep tired. Often my wife can't even sleep properly because she is too tired.
Well I don't want to harp on about this. I think the one paragraph makes my point. The reason I want to make it is much the same reason I have used this space to underline the true nature of mental health in the past in this space. What this means for me, and for carers of people with similar conditions, is the point. Sometimes, often, my wife is too tired to do anything much, Genuinely. So she sits down and she gets herself comfortable, and then a million one things are down to me. Can I pass her a book, can I make her a drink, can I turn on the TV, can I get her blanket, can I adjust her cushion for her? She's not being lazy, you see, or demanding. In the first place, she is now as comfortable as she has been all day (although still not actually comfortable) and in the second place, she can barely summon up the energy to get up. She sits down about half as often as I do, because getting up is a battle best avoided where possible. So the effort she can't manage must be left to me. As a result, quite often, I'm pretty tired, too. But at least I can sleep it off.
Articles by benjaminpmoore Archive
