it could include reclining chairs that allow people with ME/CFS to rest while making community in-person. Changing the dismissive attitude toward “contested” chronic illnesses may lead to better resources to manage symptoms—not toward a medical “cure” or elimination, but toward greater access to social worlds.

Somewhere in the middle of this catastrophe, a space opened up. There were hours spent driving from home to the hospital, from hospital to home; sitting by the side of H’s bed while he dozed; waiting in the canteen while the ward rounds took place. My days were simultaneously tense and slack: I was constantly required to be somewhere and awake and

You cannot muscle your way to health when you are chronically ill. Rather, one way of coming to terms with an amorphous systemic disease is recognizing that you are sick, that the illness will come and go, and that it is not the kind of illness you can conquer.