A brief first-person YouTube short in which the speaker recounts longstanding anxiety and depression initially attributed to a partner's stressful Marine Corps fighter-pilot career, ongoing gastrointestinal problems, and the onset of severe chronic fatigue in 2021. The chronic fatigue has been life-altering — forcing the speaker to step away from a career they loved and causing episodes like falling asleep during virtual meetings. The speaker notes recent medical history (about six to seven months post explant) and expects gradual recovery.
Chapters
Now, his career didn't help. He was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. So he had this really stressful, strenuous career that I just kind of at the time attributed my anxiety and depression to his career because he was always gone and I was doing so much of my life by myself. And so all of these symptoms that I had, I can kind of say at the time, oh, it's just lifestyle, it's just situational, they'll go away. But then when his career changed and it was much less strenuous and stressful, the anxiety and the depression didn't go away. And honestly it, it kind of got worse, especially the depression kind of set in post kids and whatnot. But loads of GI issues, loads of GI issues that I'm actually still dealing with. But I know that I'm only, I guess, six, seven months post explant, so I know that that's going to take time to heal. But it wasn't until 2021 that the chronic fatigue set in. And when that set in, my whole world was flipped upside down. And it was the hardest thing I have ever gone through in my whole life was the chronic fatigue. I mean, you know, had to step away from my career that I loved because I would be running these zooms with hundreds of my team members and I wouldn't have a talking part. So I would just be sitting here listening and I'd fall asleep and Jackie, Jackie, wake up. Hello. What are you doing? And I'm like, oh my gosh. So the chronic fatigue has been life altering to say the least.
