Chris Williamson, some sort of famous YouTuber. Thinks it’s Lyme, parasite, coinfections, mold.
I saw that yesterday. I watched the whole video, because I thought it was interesting on many different levels.
His reach on the Internet is massive. Not only because of his audience, but also because of his relationships to other podcasters with huge audiences.
First of all, I really hope he gets well soon. Despite having seen and heard a lot of similar stories, it is still heart-wrenching to watch someone go through all these phases of feeling horrible, loosing mental capacity, being confused about what is happening, trying to figure it out and trying all the crazy therapies, trying to fight through, but nothing works, slowly coming to the realization that this may be the new normal. The film shows this quite well. And he did a good job of expressing what his problems are and how this affects everyday life.
And man, this concept of exercising to get better is so deeply rooted in society and especially in the self improvement online industry. He seems to work out a lot despite his problems and no one seems to suggest that it might be an option to not do it.
What was also striking, were the two, let‘s say, health experts, in the video. They seem to be the typical health experts of the podcast world. More interested in self promoting, than in helping, and so damn sure about what Chris problems are and what to do about it. I really thougt that Chris will be fine at the end of the video, just because I thought no one would sit there so confidently telling everyone that they know what is wrong and what to do, but the result being that Chris gets worse over time. I should know better, but this massive confidence despite having no clue always rattles me. Maybe I am unfair and misunderstood things, but that is how it came across to me.
What also bugs me is that all is set up to be told as a superhero story, if and when Chris gets better. You can be sure that in this case it all will be good because of our heroes‘ determination to fight and his resilience. And as a consequence of that, cementing the public opinion that those who don‘t recover are just lacking that determination and resilience. David Goggins will be cited, Andrew Huberman will be interviewed and recommending some weired hack involving looking in the sky while running in circles and drinking athletic greens, and Gabor Mate will detect a trauma that is the root of all the problems.
I really wish Chris all the best. But for ME/CFS I am sceptical that this will bring some positive public awareness.
And of course it must be said that we do not know what he really has, although everyone here can tell a somewhat similar story