“THE ‘fog-brain’ can be so bad that it actually stresses you out to write to somebody about it,” says Swan Hill resident Margarita Watton.
She experiences the same stress when suffering bouts of clumsiness or slurred speech. She often drops things and can’t walk further than a few metres without suffering from exhaustion.
“One day I actually heard myself and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m so embarrassed’… I literally feel drunk.”
For most of her life, Ms Watton did not understand what was wrong with her.
At 16, she had suffered a back injury, and at first believed her symptoms were related to that.
But for 30 years she was actually the victim of a condition known as Fibromyalgia, characterised by chronic fatigue and pain.
It is known as “the invisible illness” because it is often hard to tell the level of pain experienced by the sufferer.
Inspired to help not only herself but others, Ms Watton recently reached out to the local community with the idea of a support group.
She got 80 responses.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of Monday’s Guardian (December 15).
