21 Comments
founding

Your advice doesn't apply only to those who are ill. And not only to those in their 20s.

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Feb 20Liked by Michael Gerber

Thank you Michael for sharing your story. I am a fellow chronically ill human, still figuring out what works and what doesn't since 2015. Self care is critical above all. PS . Laughter is good medicine. AB is fantastic. Gentle hugs. Xx

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Feb 18Liked by Michael Gerber

This piece came to me at just the right moment. I am a fellow chronic gut disease sufferer. And I too believe that my pushing my body too hard when I was younger exacerbated the situation. Very long story short, in two years I went from a relatively healthy middle aged woman to an 85lb lighter middle aged woman with a feeding tube.

Anyway, it feels so validating to read the words of someone else who gets it. So I just upped to a yearly subscription. Thank you.

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Feb 17Liked by Michael Gerber

Solid use of ChatGPT in this.

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Thanks for writing this Mike. This is inspiring in so many ways.

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Feb 17Liked by Michael Gerber

Comedy + Illness = My new song called: I Found A Pill - For Just Every Ill.

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founding

Thank you for sharing this, Michael. I can't imagine what it must have been like pushing yourself through the Hell of such severe illness. Sadly, we do live in a terribly cruel, able-ist world, where chronic pain or illness absolutely do get you shunned, written off, and ultimately in the worst case scenario, forgotten. I don't want to go into too much detail, so I'll just say that, even though I'm nowhere near death or even an inability to get around or hold a job, this really hit close to home. I don't think I could withstand the pressures of a life in comedy, which was my dream in my early teens. (I've read memoirs and essays by Jay Mohr, Darrell Hammond, Janeane Garofalo and a few others who worked on SNL, and even without chronic illnesses, they went through agony).

I'm glad you've been able to heal and find a way to make a living in humor. I really appreciate the fact that there's a humor magazine as magnificent as American Bystander.

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