New York Times: How Howard Bloom, Writer and Former Publicist, Spends His Sundays

Andy · Jan 6, 2018

n the 1980s, Howard Bloom was a fast-talking, headline-making music publicist. But in 1988, he hit a wall. For 15 years, he suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome so severe that he barely got out of bed. “And for five of those years I was too weak to speak and too weak to have another person in the room with me,” Mr. Bloom, now 74, said. Nonetheless, he managed to write three science-related books during those years, and recently published his seventh, “How I Accidentally Started the Sixties,” a memoir of chemical and spiritual experimentation that begins in 1962. Mr. Bloom lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he runs several online discussion groups.

SLEEP SOLUTION When I was fighting chronic fatigue syndrome, one of the first symptoms was insomnia. Eventually it occurred to me that my body was trying to tell me something. It didn’t want to sleep the normal routine eight hours. So I broke the eight hours into two four-hour shifts, and started to do one of the four-hour shifts from 11 o’clock in the morning to 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and the other one from 4 o’clock in the morning until 8 o’clock in the morning. And it was one of those tiny incremental things that helped me get out of the bedroom.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/...-and-former-publicist-spends-his-sundays.html

Kalliope · Jan 6, 2018

I take 30 pills. It’s a lot of pills, but remember, I thought I’d be in a bedroom for the rest of my life. Over the course of a long time, I accumulated a list of these 30 drugs that worked and this one injection that works, and they are the reasons I’m stronger today than when I was 19 years old. It takes 20 to 25 minutes.

That's really something.. wow.

Forbin · Jan 7, 2018

SLEEP SOLUTION When I was fighting chronic fatigue syndrome, one of the first symptoms was insomnia. Eventually it occurred to me that my body was trying to tell me something. It didn’t want to sleep the normal routine eight hours. So I broke the eight hours into two four-hour shifts, and started to do one of the four-hour shifts from 11 o’clock in the morning to 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and the other one from 4 o’clock in the morning until 8 o’clock in the morning. And it was one of those tiny incremental things that helped me get out of the bedroom.
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I've mentioned elsewhere that that there have been occasions when I have woken up after 4 hours of sleep, only to feel much better than if I had slept for 8 hours. It was interesting, but how could you continually get by on 4 hours of sleep? It never occurred to me to sleep in two 4 hour shifts.

I not sure that this would work for me, though, as it has only happened when I've woken up "naturally" after 4 hours. It doesn't seem to work if I wake up to an alarm.

Trish · Jan 7, 2018

Wow, that's a massive lot of drugs to take. I assume, from the picture of a desk full of pill bottles that some of them are nutritional supplements and possibly herbs, but who knows.

Good to hear it works for him. I wonder whether he ever tries stopping taking any of them to see whether they are really all necessary for his health. I admit to curiosity about what they could possibly be, and whether they were prescribed by an ME specialist.

I'm trying to imagine what the effect of such an article would be on readers who know nothing about ME. Would the take home message be, wow, that sounds like a pretty devastating illness, or would it be that everyone could be cured by just taking lots of pills, so the rest of us aren't trying hard enough.

I have mixed feelings about such articles that are, in the end, about individual cases, and completely uninformative for the rest of us.

Andy · Jan 7, 2018

Often, if I go to bed feeling tired-but-wired, I will only get around 4 hours sleep, whereas typically I get 8 or 9. But on waking after 4 hours, I don't feel better or worse compared to after my normal 8.5 hours.

Jaybee00 · Aug 10, 2020

‘The Grand Unified Theory of Howard Bloom’ Review: A Career Rewritten
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/movies/the-grand-unified-theory-of-howard-bloom-review.html

Mentions CFS

Film trailer in the article.

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New York Times: How Howard Bloom, Writer and Former Publicist, Spends His Sundays

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New York Times: How Howard Bloom, Writer and Former Publicist, Spends His Sundays

Andy Committee Member

Kalliope Senior Member (Voting Rights)

Forbin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

Trish Moderator Staff Member

Andy Committee Member

Jaybee00 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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