The Misunderstood Illness

Someone actually wrote asong about CFS. At http://www.rescindinc.org/everybody.htm if you scroll down and right-click the hyperlink, you can download the MP3 file of a beautiful song written by an M.E./C.F.S. sufferer for the R.E.S.C.I.N.D. charity. The idea is that if you like it, you can make a donation to the charity.

Here are the lyrics, for if you want to sing along:

Everybody Knows About Me
By Susan Wenger of the indie/pop group Cinder Bridge

Here I am again, sitting by the window
In my small apartment on the 7th floor.
Keep myself occupied, by looking at the traffic
As if I lost the right to ask for more.

My body feels like it’s moving under water
As I lift a cup of coffee to my face.
I think about the things I’d like to try and do today
But somewhere in the middle lose my place.

Thick fog, hazy brown, the two-ton weights that pull me down
They don’t insist if no-one else could see.
Everybody knows about the failings of the down and out
And everybody knows about me.

I had a good job, had some good friends,
Had a life I could look forward to when I woke up each day
And then the fog rolled in, consumed them one by one
’til there was nothing left for it to take away

Sometimes I count it as a victory when I manage
Just to drag my aching body out of bed
The doctor’s mystified, could not produce an answer,
So they told me it was all in my head.

’cause if I wanted to I could shake this yuppie flu
Straighten out and set myself free.
Anyone could clearly see, we all choose our own destiny
And everybody knows about me.

Does it make it easier for you
To think there must be something I could do?
Rise like a phoenix from the ashes of this solitary world.

So I remain here, sitting by the window,
Watching all the people with their lives to live.
I would give anything to go outside and join them
But today I don’t have anything to give.

And still they have no doubt,
I’m looking for an easy out
And this is what I wanted secretly.
Everyone will have their say,
They shake their heads, they walk away
And everybody knows about me.
Everybody knows about me.
Everybody knows about me.