Blog: The Whole Damn Chronic Situation: "FINALLY WRITING ABOUT M.E. - NEW BOOK."

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
Blog by an author, who has ME, about finally writing about ME. One of the reasons for sharing is that I really like the quote below.
Kay describes her condition as a "doing allergy". As she says, looking back at her former life, "I did, and now I do not do". What I was exploring through Kay was one of the key frustrations in the life of a person with ME - everyone around you seems to be engaged in a non-stop flurry of action, while you are stalled, limited and generally unable to "do" much.
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I have no connection to the author and only came across this when I saw Tom Kindlon had shared it on Facebook.

https://thedamnchronicsituation.blogspot.com/2018/11/finally-writing-about-me-new-book.html
 
The blog has a link to the part of the book introducing the character with ME, which I have read.

I thought the character's experience of being housebound was described well and sympathetically. I find it hard to imagine how the character's life is going to change or how anything very interesting is going to happen or how she is going to have any interaction with the other characters of the book. But the initial description was written well enough that I am interested to find out.
 
Kay describes her condition as a "doing allergy".
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This confused me at first until I realised that the way it is quoted makes the statement ambiguous. I thought for a moment it was saying that the person was doing "allergy", as in - engaged in allergy, which is a bit nonsensical. It is of course really saying that Kay describes her condition as a "doing" allergy - unable to do stuff. A slight cautionary note is that in the UK if someone is deemed to be lazy, then there is a vernacular usage whereby such a person may be described as "allergic to work".
 
Hutan said:
The blog has a link to the part of the book introducing the character with ME, which I have read.
I thought the character's experience of being housebound was described well and sympathetically. I find it hard to imagine how the character's life is going to change or how anything very interesting is going to happen or how she is going to have any interaction with the other characters of the book. But the initial description was written well enough that I am interested to find out.
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I read some of it and skimmed the rest. I agree it does give a flavour of living with ME. Given that the writer says she has now recovered from ME, it's possible the character will recover too - I wonder what she will attribute the recovery to - she doesn't suggest any reasons for her recovery in the blog post, as far as I recall.

Barry said:
This confused me at first until I realised that the way it is quoted makes the statement ambiguous. I thought for a moment it was saying that the person was doing "allergy", as in - engaged in allergy, which is a bit nonsensical. It is of course really saying that Kay describes her condition as a "doing" allergy - unable to do stuff. A slight cautionary note is that in the UK if someone is deemed to be lazy, then there is a vernacular usage whereby such a person may be described as "allergic to work".
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I had similar problems with the phrase 'doing allergy'. I have hazy memories of LP including telling people to say they are 'doing ME' (or CFS) as a prelude to telling them that it was in their control to stop 'doing ME', as if it were a conscious choice.

Also, as Barry says, it's very common to hear people say they are 'allergic to' something they don't like. I have been known to say I'm allergic to radio phone in programs, high heeled shoes and chamomile tea because I don't like listening to, wearing or smelling them respectively. My 'doing allergy' is because I can't 'do', not because I don't want to.
 
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