Behind the surface

Campaign to recognise dangers of mental illness - Independent Online Edition > Health Annotated Stigma also played a part in denying mental patients treatment for physical illness. An Australian study found mental patients with heart disease were less than half as likely to receive surgery for their condition and were 80 per cent more likely to die from it than unaffected patients. "We have missed these links [between mental and physical health]. Without them we fail to capture the full impact of mental illness," Professor Prince said. Um, ya think? Actually, those figures from the Australian study are horrifying for someone with ME/CFIDS, a disease that some still consider to be a psychiatric illness. Like this bastard (who you will note I mentioned with some derision in the post on the Georgia prevalence figures), who heads the primary care clinic for ME/CFIDS in the UK and believes that wheelchairs and handicapped parking permits shouldn't be given to people wi...

It's the annual CFIDS Awareness Day (well, tomorrow is but today was the lobby day -- which I did "virtually" at the CFIDS Association ). Last year I shared what I've lost having CFIDS, but this year I thought I'd be a little more upbeat and share what is good about being sick. My beloved A. If I hadn't been sick, I never would have been bored and lonely and wandering around a chatroom in the middle of the afternoon nearly five years ago. After chatting for over a year, we finally met in person in 2003 when I had a mild remission. It's funny because while I've spent so much of my time wishing I could have back what I had in 2003, it occurred to me last week that maybe 2003 was a gift -- an aberration -- that made it possible for A. and I to finally meet. An examined life Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living and let's face, I've got lots o' time for examining life, some of which has been guided through the use of Cra...