The Antidote #17: Simone Biles, wellness heroine
Plus, the summer COVID-19 wave, dysautonomia management, and BIPOC chronic illness support
Welcome to The Antidote, the biweekly roundup post from The Tonic that is filled to the brim with goodies.
The Tonic is a lighthearted, heavily resourced newsletter for folks interested in learning about long COVID, ME/CFS, and other chronic illnesses. Come for the info; stay for the whimsy. Or vice versa.
I will generally post once a week on Saturdays or Sundays: a narrative post when my energy allows and resource roundups (The Antidote) at all other times. Occasionally I post more than once a week, usually to announce an event or to push brief, timely info out to you sooner.
Wish list shout outs!
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Simone Biles and the critical importance of self-care (but really)
If you’ve been with The Tonic for some time, you may remember that we are big Simone Biles fans here. She’s inarguably the GOAT when it comes to gymnasts of any gender (why do people say arguably when they mean inarguably? I’m not here for your argument on this, Chad. If you want to argue it, start your own Substack).
So, if her supreme greatness is not up for debate, why write about her here, above the fold in the biweekly roundup?
Because her story of incredible self-awareness and ultimately self-care, all at a tender age and while on top of the world in her sport, is a great lesson for those of us with long COVID, ME/CFS, chronic illness, burnout, or any flavor of what I’ll call “deferred wellness.”
To recognize that you are unwell and spiraling down a path of increased dis-ease (hyphen intended) takes a lot of smarts and courage. It means you are not so singularly focused on some arbitrary or pre-defined goal, achievement, or people-pleasing task that you are unable to be present for yourself, to not listen to what’s going on in your mind and body, and to not have the inner fortitude and gumption to do something about it right then and there.
How many 24-year-olds do you know who have that much maturity and presence of mind? I certainly didn’t when I was 24, let alone when I was 44 and burning the candle at both ends at the time of my COVID-19 infection. It took about three years into this long haul for me to learn to quiet my monkey-mind, stop with the to-do lists, put aside the praise-seeking that has driven being a lifelong achiever, calm my nervous system, and truly listen to what my symptoms have been trying to tell me about the imbalance of my ways.
Some in my situation can put these pieces together much more quickly. Others never really do. My days of wishing it hadn’t taken me 3-4 years to figure all that out are over. When you are the way that you are for over four decades, taking a few years to unlearn old patterns and integrate new ones doesn’t really seem that long.
Back to Simone. Here’s a fantastic article on her latest record-breaking accomplishment - winning her 9th U.S. championship - but focused on her even greater legacy as a role model. My favorite lines:
Maybe someone else will realize that it’s all right to step away — from a job, from school, from seemingly crushing obligations — to deal with a mental health crisis through Biles’ strength. In many ways, that would be as great a legacy as the four gold medals Biles won in Rio. It already trumps anything she can do in Paris.
It’s all right to step away.
NOTHING is worth more than your mental or physical health.
Most important, there is joy to be found when you invest in yourself.
“Everyone says I look like I’m having fun,” Biles tells the NBC cameras in Cowtown. “When I’m not stressing or having anxiety, I do feel like I’m having fun.”
Be like Simone. Step back. Assess your life and your well-being. Seek the help you need. Focus on love and living your life. Above all, find your joy.
Thank you, Simone. You are a role model for ALL the people.
COVID, Long COVID, and ME/CFS
😷 First up: our annual summer wave of COVID. Be careful out there, folks.
📰 Let’s stick with The Sick Times. They always have the hot takes. Go to their website to subscribe to their newsletter.
Black and Unbelieved: A conversation with filmmaker Chimére Sweeney (friends - Chimere is a fellow long hauler and friend, and she has been a leader in LC advocacy since the beginning. If you can throw her a few clams for her important film project, please go to PayPal or Venmo and do so. And thank you!).
🦀 This article is paywalled through the Washington Post, but if you have an iPhone, you can read it through Apple news: ‘Unusual’ cancers emerged after the pandemic. Doctors ask if covid is to blame.
🗞️ A new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, commissioned by the Social Security Administration: Long-Term Health Effects of COVID-19: Disability and Function Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection. You can download it for free as a guest.
🐭 Frightening, and points to an autoimmunity explanation of LC: Transfer of IgG from Long COVID patients induces symptomology in mice.
✈️ The longer your flight (without masking), the more you’re at risk for catching COVID: The Risk of Aircraft-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 Transmission during Commercial Flights: A Systematic Review.
🏋🏻♀️ ‘I could bench-press 100kg. Now, I can’t walk’: Lucy’s life with long Covid. This article features a personal story, but also contains a fascinating (though not terribly surprising) composite picture of what a Long COVID sufferer’s life is like, compiled from thousands of entries received by The Guardian.
🦇 I don’t post much about COVID’s origins, but this one by
caught my eye:
🔬 Many of you found The Tonic through the most excellent
, but in case you didn’t, their latest post contained so many great summaries and analyses of recent research and articles. Give them a subscribe if you haven’t already.
Webinars/conferences/podcasts/videos
🖥️ The Dysautonomia Project is hosting a day-long conference for patients and caregivers called Dyscourse: Tools for Managing Autonomic Disorders on June 15th. Find out more here.
👩🏽💻 The CURE ID treatment study of Long COVID with Shira Strongin:
💤 The next RECOVER webinar will be on June 25th at 12pm ET and is on RECOVER-SLEEP and RECOVER-ENERGIZE – Clinical Trials for Sleep Disturbances, Exercise Intolerance, and Post Exertional Malaise Due to Long COVID. Register here.
Health miscellany
🎨 Well, shit - something’s gonna get me: Tattoos May Be a Risk Factor for Lymphoma (free MedPage Today account required to read).
🛳️ This one gave me visions from the movies Contagion or Outbreak: Dozens of United Airlines passengers headed to Houston fall ill after international cruise. You’ll not soon find me on a cruise. You may never again.
😵💫 Societal pressures affect our health - especially that of people of color: The Sickening Reality of 'White' Beauty Standards (free MedPage Today account required to read).
🧑🏽🤝🧑🏾 Here’s a great new resource by the Global Healthy Living Foundation. ChronicHue: Mental Health Support for BIPOC Chronic Illness.
💩 Major cause of inflammatory bowel disease found. Scientists have found a weak spot in our DNA that is present in 95% of people with the disease.
🚭 Here’s a fact I did not know: the LGBTQ+ community has higher rates of smoking than the population at large and historically has been a target of tobacco industry marketing. Read more in Urged on by LGBTQ+ Activists, California Cities Weigh Stricter Smoking Rules.
🍽️ What are those weird ingredients in our favorite US packaged foods?
🩺 Get ready for doctor shortages in the U.S. south and midwest: Medical residents are starting to avoid states with abortion bans, data shows.
🤦🏼♀️ Shame on you, NYU Langone Medical Center: Nurse honored for compassion fired after referring in speech to Gaza 'genocide'. I mean, this nurse is Palestinian American AND major news outlets are referring to it now as a genocide. I hope NYU gets the pants sued off of them.
👸🏾 In Defying the stereotype of Black resilience, Kaela S. Singleton argues that Black success should not require hardship or struggle. Hear, hear.
👩🏽⚕️
with a brave and necessary essay on why nobody with a vagina should have to put up with painful sex. Give her a subscribe.
Now stick around for…
🥳 The After-party 🥳
Added resources, joy, tomfoolery, and buffoonery
🌈 It’s Pride month!! 🌈
🏳️🌈 Here’s a little Randy Rainbow to brighten your GAY GAY GAY. (I’m reading his memoir now, Playing with Myself, and it’s so delightful!).
🥵 Any other Bridgerton fans out there? It’s steamy and juicy and I love it. This article caught my eye: Nicola Coughlan is a little bit fat and a lot hot. Like her, I dream of the day when we’re not talking about this.
💵 Why You Should Always Tip In Cash. People are hustlin’ - give them some paper when you can.
🏠 This is awful and outrageous and I can’t believe it’s not illegal: Zombie 2nd mortgages are coming to life, threatening thousands of Americans' homes.
🦖 I’m just gonna come out and say it: these kids may have peaked too soon in life. I mean…yay! Good for them! ‘Extremely rare’ dinosaur discovered by 3 tweens.
🕸️ Giant, parachuting Joro spiders expected to arrive in NY and NJ this summer. I would normally be freaked out, but these guys eat yellowjackets and mosquitoes (the natural enemies of Baldy) as well as marmorated stink bugs (The Tonic’s least favorite insect of all time).
🌀 Another “gem” for the eastern and southeastern U.S.: The nation's top hurricane forecaster has 5 warnings as dangerous hurricane season starts. If I had hatches, I’d be battening them down in anticipation.
🤦🏻 Buffoon of the week: For the first time in Tonic history, we have a Buffoon update. Remember Mr. Driving-with-a-suspended-license from last week? Well, check this out: Clerical error was behind Michigan man’s viral suspended license hearing. A bureaucratic injustice! You can decide if you still think he was a buffoon for showing up to Zoom court from behind the wheel.
🏆 Winner of the week: Nerds for the win! Congratulations to Bruhat Soma, the 12yo from St. Petersburg, Florida, won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee in a spell-off.
🐈⬛ 💩 And finally, it’s this week’s Cat Dump. Assorted tomfoolery edition.
You rock, Amy! Thanks so much for the mention, means a lot! And once more, for an amazing roundup. Woot! 💃🏻
DEFERRED WELLNESS!
Zira is looking gorge
That article about the plane of cruisers getting sick gave me Triangle of Sadness PTSD and you could not PAY me to get on one (if you have not seen that movie plz DO NOT watch it I am horrified I even glanced at the TV while husband had it on)