My brain is shutting down for Christmas and New Year a bit early

But I’ll be back in January

Nov 22, 2023

I’ve written about how my brain shuts down sometimes and I’m in such a period now. August and September have been my best months where I was able to create a lot of content. I love these kinds of months.

A collapsed building symbolising chronic illness brain — Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Now, I’m finding it hard and painful to write this newsletter, even focusing on sending it out is difficult, which is why I'm going on my break a bit earlier than anticipated. This is the last newsletter before the new year. I hope and plan to be back sometime in January.

Honestly, I hate taking these breaks as I’m always worried whether people are still there when I get back, but I’m chosing to trust that it will be ok. And I’m finally beginning to gain momentum, there is a steady instream of subscribers every week and I love it. Regardless, these month-long breaks are important for me to be able to continue writing without burning out, or worse, crashing.

And I do have something for you today!

I was interviewed for Kristi Koeter’s Substack Almost Satedabout how wellness culture’s focus on ‘food for recovery’ can be taken too far:

“The idea in wellness culture that you can cure complex illnesses with food turns into a stigma about ill people being unhealthy or “if they just stopped eating white bread they would get much better.” This kind of thinking is incredibly stigmatising and ableist and can cause isolation for many people. I felt ostracised from my yoga community when I became ill because of this stigma.”

Dieting for health is incredibly complex as food can definitely help in managing illness (I, for example, have tons of intolerances that are important for me to stay away from), but taken too far can have downsides and can create a disordered, almost anxious and shameful relationship to food. We also talked about the harmful consequences of dieting for weight loss.

Read the full interview here:

Almost Sated

'I was told by wellness culture that the right diet could heal me'

In recent years, the intersection of diet and wellness culture has become so pronounced within our health-obsessed society that many of us can’t see the difference. While food modifications and elimination diets are necessary for a portion of the population suffering from digestive conditions, they can do more harm than good when applied more broadly to…

2 years ago · 8 likes · 4 comments · Kristi Koeter

And a big huge welcome to all my new subscribers and a huge THANK YOU to all you subscribers who’ve been with me for a while!

I love seeing every single one of you here. Having people to write to and with gives my life so much meaning. I can’t wait to get to know you in the comment sections of my posts! I won’t be gone for long, so in the meantime here are my most popular posts for you to read:

I’ll see you in January and while it’s a bit early I wish you a happy holidays when you get to it!

Bye for now,

Madelleine