Welcome to The Rest Room: a place to explore what it means to live (and live well) with chronic illness. natashalipman.substack.com
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On convalescence & chronic illness
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A little while ago, my doctor told me that I need to convalesce. My instinct? To record a podcast episode about convalescence. In which I was called out (kindly) for that being my first instinct. The episode is, I think, a fascinating conversation about what realistic convalescence in 2023 looks like when you live with a long-term health condition …
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What actually is Post-Exertional Malaise?
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Do you experience Post-Exertional Malaise? I have for a number of years now, and it can be utterly debilitating. But, like the term “brain fog”, I know what PEM means, what it feels like, subjectively, but I didn’t know all that much about what we actually mean when we talk about PEM. What’s actually happening inside our bodies when we experience t…
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The Rest Room: A 2022 Wrap-Up
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This year has been the best one yet when it comes to this podcast. I’ve been working with an amazing producer (big shoutout to Philly Guillou!) which means we’ve been able to consistently release two episodes a month - and with her support I’ve been able to start working on the kind of content I always felt like I needed when I was younger and earl…
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How to survive (and enjoy!) the festive season with chronic illness
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Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, when December rolls around (and you live in a Christian country) there’s a whole lots of special festive stuff going on. Whether it’s invites to dinner or New Year parties, Secret Santa, family meals, festive drinks in a bedecked pub - there’s often a whole lot more social stuff to do, presents to wrap, ugly …
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What happens when diagnostic criteria aren't fit for purpose?
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In this episode we discuss: * The history of the Beighton Score - how did a tool used for epidemiological studies come to be used to test for EDS? And should it have been? * The limitations of the current EDS criteria (and what the hell happened with the HSD diagnosis) * The difficulties of creating a diagnostic criteria for hEDS * What’s the deal …
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How to make the most of your medical appointments
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1:00:56
One of the saddest (and yet not surprising) things I’ve heard over the years in my conversations with chronically ill people is how many people have had negative experiences with medical professionals. I wanted to talk to someone who has experience on both sides of the doctor-patient relationship. And with that in mind, I’m delighted to share a cha…
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Inside a chronic illness-friendly workplace
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In the last episode of The Rest Room podcast, we explored the tricky beast of navigating work when you live with chronic illness. As I mentioned, there are many people who are too unwell to work, but there are also many of us who (with the right roles, adjustments and support) may be able to work even a little bit. With the help of my guests Pippa …
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Navigating work & chronic illness
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This week, we’re joined by good friend of the Rest Room, Pippa Stacey, a writer, blogger and public speaker who works with the UK charity Astriid, which matches talented people with long-term health conditions with meaningful work. We’re also joined by Bruce Daisley, who’s a best-selling author and self-proclaimed workplace culture enthusiast. We d…
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Can technology teach me to pace?
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When I heard that a new startup called Visible was building wearable technology to help people with energy-limiting conditions learn how to pace - using real-time data from our own bodies to help us understand how exertion is impacting our health - I got extremely excited. I was lucky enough to join the team in April, and in today's episode I'm joi…
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Fear, Pain & Hope: Movement with Hypermobility
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How we think about movement when living with hypermobiliy is a subject I’m super interested in, so I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to chat with Joint Hypermobility & Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Movement Therapist, Jeannie Di Bon. I’ve worked with Jeannie a couple of times in the past and I personally found her approach to the hypermobile body …
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"This really brought us closer together" - navigating a relationship with chronic illness
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What's it actually like to date with chronic illness? And what's it like to date someone who lives with chronic illness? That’s exactly what we’ll be exploring today - from both sides. I'm joined by my new husband Sebastian to discuss what it's like to be with someone who can’t do a lot of the things young people are expected to do? To see someone …
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'I hated myself': becoming chronically ill at 12
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“I just hated myself. I really hated myself. My body kept failing me. And so I couldn't do all the things that I so desperately wanted to do. I couldn't be a part of friendship groups. I couldn't go out. I couldn't do anything. This thing, my body, which is supposed to get me from point A, point B, it's supposed to be on my side. It just kept on fa…
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Actually useful sleep advice for chronic illness
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Sleep (or lack of it) can be of the cruellest paradoxes of living with chronic illness: you spend your days fatigued beyond words, only to struggle to fall asleep at night. Or you spend a huge amount of time sleeping, but never wake up feeling rested. And yes, having trouble sleeping is not a problem unique to people living with chronic illness, bu…
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Ok so, I know how I often talk about pacing and thinking about how to break up activities and give myself as much time as possible to do things…and then…we decided to get married in August. But we have a plan. And I love admin, so…this is going to be totally fine…?! Sebastian and I got engaged in June of 2020, but with the whole pandemic going on w…
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The problem with "self-management"
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If you’re a regular listener of The Rest Room podcast, you may have sensed a little bit of a theme. I’m very interested in exploring tools and techniques to help us learn how to live well with chronic illness. We’ve explored topics like pacing and how to safely and sustainably introduce movement into your life - things that are often lumped into th…
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Welcome back to Part 2 of our mini series on brain fog and chronic illness. In our last episode, Neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan explained what brain fog actually is and all the different ways it can impact us. As someone who has complained about brain fog for years, but has never thought about it beyond my own subjective experience, I found it f…
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What actually is brain fog?
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Like many people living with chronic illness and chronic pain, brain fog is a normal (but bloody annoying) part of my daily life. Whilst I can talk about it subjectively, I never spent much time thinking about what brain fog actually is. I’m not particularly adept at using visual and descriptive imagery to explain things, so I loved when my friend …
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“The whole world needs to know that people with disabilities in Ukraine are left behind”
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On the 24th February 2022, the world watched in horror as Russian troops invaded Ukraine. At the time of writing, more than 2.5 million people have fled the country, in what the United Nations has called the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War Two. It’s unclear how many of those who’ve left are disabled, but the European Disability Forum…
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Did you know that in the founding constitution of the World Health Organisation, health is defined as: “A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” As someone who's lived with chronic conditions since I was a child, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what recovery can mean. I…
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How to break the boom and bust cycle, for real this time
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“I think all too often, healthcare professionals put [self-management] across in a way that kind of internalises a lot of this guilt around ‘I haven't been able to manage, so I failed at self-management.’ You haven't been able to manage because you're living with something unmanageable. Complex, long-term, unpleasant health conditions are a challen…
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Pacing: A guide for people who’d rather be doing other things
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Before we get started, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who signed up to my newsletter last week, and to those of you who have purchased a premium subscription. I have so many things I want to do and create, and your support will make that possible. Thank you again. If you’re interested in becoming a premium subscriber, you can get 10% off yea…
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What to do when your chronic illness flares up
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If you live with chronic illness or chronic pain, chances are you’ll experience a flare-up of your symptoms from time to time. Those flare-ups will look and feel different for each person, but whatever a flare up means for you, we hope this episode will provide you with some valuable tips and tricks to help you navigate them better. Pain management…
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How accessible is theatre for disabled people?
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Many theatres were built hundreds of years ago, without accessibility in mind. It’s true that a lot has changed in recent years, but disabled people still face many barriers both off and on stage. In this episode, we speak to access consultant and activist Shona Louise about the work she’s doing to drive real change in the industry. We also hear fr…
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How to make a film about chronic illness
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How often do you see chronic illness or disability portrayed on your screens? The answer is, sadly not as often as we should. In fact, disabled people are the most under-represented group in television, both on and off screen. In this episode, we explore how accessible the industry is as we speak to screenwriter Charlotte Paradise. She’s behind the…
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How To Navigate University With Chronic Illness
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Heading to university can be a rollercoaster of emotions – for many, it’s one of the most exciting experiences, but also one of the most overwhelming. And for someone living with a chronic illness, it can be a minefield. In today’s episode we aim to take the stress and uncertainty out of the university experience, so you can enjoy the ride. Author,…
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Writing, Chronic Illness & Incidental Diversity with Talia Hibbert
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In this (very belated) episode, I'm joined by the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of steamy, diverse romance, Talia Hibbert. Her latest book is "Act Your Age, Eve Brown", an autistic romance, and her first book "Get a Life, Chloe Brown" features a protagonist living with Fibromyalgia. Talia says she "lives in a bedroom full of books. Su…
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How To Read More When You Live With Chronic Illness
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Struggling with reading is something that can be really upsetting to many people, so last year I took to my Instagram Stories to find out what your biggest challenges are when it comes to reading, and what has helped you find a way to make it more accessible. Helpfully, and perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the reading issues that people shared can b…
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How to learn a language with a chronic illness
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I’m joined by one of my best friends in the world, Colin Gorrie. Or should I say Dr. Colin Gorrie. Colin is a linguist and lifelong language learner. These days he works on bringing knowledge of language and linguistics to a wider audience online. Colin also lives with EDS and experiences a lot of brain fog and fatigue, so I thought it would be a g…
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How to Start Exercising when Everything Hurts
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Welcome to Episode 3 of The Rest Room! In the last episode, we looked at ways to address the barriers that come up when figuring out how to start incorporating movement and exercise into your life. We learned that we need to throw the whole ‘workout’ mentality in the bin, especially if movement is new to you, but we didn’t cover how to get started …
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What are your barriers to moving with chronic pain?
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Changing behaviour can be really hard, even at the best of times. How many of you have embarked on a new fitness regime to help with your health condition, only to stop within a day, a week, or a month? That could be because of pain, fatigue, lack of confidence, lack of support, or one of many other reasons. We often underestimate the difficulties …
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Understanding Movement For Chronic Pain
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The Rest Room is a podcast about living well with chronic illness. I'm Natasha Lipman, an award-winning chronic illness blogger and journalist from London. I've been working with experts to bring you evidence-based guides on a whole host of topics like pacing, exercise, and chronic pain. I'll also be talking to people who live with chronic illness …
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