April BIW saved by what James Taylor calls "the threat of heavy weather."

Well, April Book-in-a-Week is almost over, and what a struggle it's been. In an attempt to purge myself of my residual anger, shock and despair about my treatment at the hospital last summer, I attempted this week to write The Hospital Story. I might as well have tried to uproot a very large very old oak using nothing but a screwdriver and my bare hands. Perhaps I am still too close to the material and simply do not want to dredge up again the pain of a psychiatric diagnosis and the mistreatment which followed in its wake. For whatever reason, the pages were not forthcoming until yesterday, when I read that the APA is considering reclassifying Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a psychiatric, psychogenic illness. That got my juices going. A couple of hours later I had 13 pages of protest, story, and surviving the ordeal despite the fact that I had written straight through breakfast, my medications and all.

After I give it a bit of polish, I'll post "A Discursive and Emotional Argument Against Broadening the Definition of Somataform Disorders." I wish Jonathon Swift were here to write for me. He'd have the perfect words to describe the "Chronic Fatigue Problem," and probably a clever solution as well, preferably one which involves cannibalism.

In the meantime, check it out yourself at the blog Fighting Fatigue,  which in turn describes the danger to CFS patients and instructs you how to leave comments on the APA website should you feel so moved.

You'll find my post somewhat less rational than the one above. And why shouldn't it be? I'm crazy. No one reads me anyway, except for you of course.

The possibility of this coming true, which I hope is exaggerated, simply makes me crazed.

Write what you know; write what impassions you. Just a hint.