Stuart Murdoch (of Belle and Sebastian)

obeat said:
Statins are used by some US gastroenterologists to treat SIBO. Depends on results of methane breath test.
.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4737270/
There are some other papers.
Click to expand...

Thanks @obeat. I like to learn new things!
Here is the conclusion of the abstract of the review paper you linked in case anyone else is interested:
Conclusions
Clinical development appears promising. A phase 2 clinical trial is currently in progress that evaluates the effect of lovastatin lactone on methanogenesis and symptoms in patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
Click to expand...
 
Snowdrop said:
For me my problems with positivity are not about any one person's experience but about the omnipresence of the idea that it will help. Although this can be true about coping because of the amount of exposure to the idea there is a priming effect that causes first a focus on the idea even when presented as part of a package of thoughts. And then after focussing on it it tends to get exaggerated.

It does a service to no one who is actually ill with anything because those who do not have the illness experience use these two things to justify a rather unhelpful attitude toward the sick.
Click to expand...
I don't entirely agree, because outside of ME advocacy groups most people are not primed, and will be able to see Stuart Murdoch's comments about being positive simply for what they are, and read nothing more into it. He makes it very clear there is no cure, and that symptom management and coping skills are all there is. Before, and soon after, my wife got sick, I would not have misunderstood what he is saying here, and I think it would have helped. But my wife and I have always believed in trying to stay positive anyway, and becoming ill does not change that.
 
Staurt has gone several decades managing his ME pretty well - he seems to have remained mild-moderate and has carved out a successful, active career and he seems genuinley happy and content. Maybe this was luck. But part of me can see how his attitude to his illness may have helped. As he explains in his latest video, he had to accept the illness and live with it, and he took this route instead of becoming bitter and full of anger. Now some anger is warranted - especially for advocacy - and some bitterness is almost a given. But yes, it's about balanace. He's a level-headed and sensible bloke doing something he loves, and I'm sure this has played at least a small role in him keeping stress levels down and keeping some symptoms in check.

I'm glad he decided to upload a video so soon after the positive treatment video - it just shows the frustrating pattern of fluctuation of symptoms and how this drives mood!
 
"I just disappeared."

The musician, writer and filmmaker, originally from Clarkston in East Renfrewshire, will perform with Belle & Sebastian at the first-ever 'Millions Missing' event in Glasgow on May 12. The rally aims to raise awareness of the desperate need for biomedical research into ME.

The condition affects some 21,000 people in Scotland but there are currently no known effective treatments, diagnostic tests or even any clear evidence on exactly what triggers it.

In Scotland, ME is the main cause of long-term sickness absence from school but there are no ME specialist hospital consultants and only one specialist nurse.

Professor Chris Ponting, who will also take part in the Millions Missing event in George Square, is one of those trying to unravel the ME enigma.
Click to expand...
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17584375.belle-sebastian-frontman-stuart-murdoch-on-me-battle/
 
Sounds just like my progression too..For a year I just wasnt feeling right, and training seemed to make me feel worse. Weirdly fatigued at the end of the day. I actually managed to get an A when I then eventually got full blown ME at uni, which im pretty proud of, but that exam was one of the most distressing things i have ever fought through i have to say.. Brain fog, anxiety, exhaustion etc.. Only possible because i had studied prior to getting ill. Had to go to the toilet and close my eyes multiple times, wondering what the heck was going on.. they probably wondered if i was cheating :sneaky:

I`m glad hes comfortable advocating about it again. Its certainly not comfortable to do when u know ur looked upon as a second-class citizen!
 
'Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch will publish his debut novel, Nobody’s Empire, in September 2024 [...]. Part memoir and part fiction, the novel is set in Glasgow and California in the early 1990s and follows a character searching for “a new-world reinvention” after his hospitalization with chronic fatigue syndrome. [...]

“I drifted into writing Nobody’s Empire. It felt like the right time to tell this story in long-form, even though I have been singing about it for years. I imagined I was writing it for the [myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome] community and as the book went on it became more important to me, gaining a life of its own. I needed it as much as it needed me and I leant heavily on it for solace.'

https://pitchfork.com/news/belle-and-sebastians-stuart-murdoch-to-publish-debut-novel/
 
"Everybody has a story" - a talk with Stuart Murdoch
September 20, 2024

In a recent InterAction article, we spoke to Scottish singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch about his journey with ME, which he shares in his new book, Nobody's Empire.


Speed read
Stuart Murdoch has lived with ME for over 30 years. He has manage to build a slow career in music and is the lead signer in the band Belle and Sebastian. Stuart reflects on storytelling (particularly in his new novel), his journey with ME and his sense of belonging in the ME community. He wants to make a difference and raise awareness. He shares his certainty that no life is ever wasted.

Continues at:
https://www.actionforme.org.uk/news/a-talk-with-stuart-murdoch/

https://twitter.com/user/status/1837564595239633237
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
That's a interesting article about Stuart. Fantastic that he's stepping up his advocacy efforts, seemingly in partnership with AfME. Thank you Stuart.
What are your hopes for the book?

I would like to help people. I don't just mean this with the book. I mean in general. I do want to be useful.

It would be great if it could serve some sort of purpose. I'm hoping that when I do interviews that maybe I'm doing a job, by raising the issue again. Because we all know that there's work to be done, that people still feel as if they've been deserted.

I’ve just said that we tried to escape from ME and that would be a victory. At the same time, every time I've been involved with Millions Missing, or any advocating for ME, I don’t feel I’m in a foreign country.

I feel like I belong. I recognise ME people. I am one.I'll never not recognise ME people as good people, who just want to get on with it – they want to work, they want to live. I think the powers that be don't understand or don't care that ME people want this chance and deserve it as much as anybody.
Click to expand...
Many are still labouring under the false belief that it's “all in your head”, and the legacy of that.

There are always mental health aspects that come with any illness – be it cancer or another major illness. Some of these mental health aspects may come before, some of them come during, some of them come after – they're interwoven.

But for the physical aspects to be ignored in the case of ME is unforgivable. A doctor has to listen to a patient, believe what they're telling them and take appropriate action. They need support. We all need support.
Click to expand...

It's difficult to describe ME to someone who has no lived experience of it. How do you feel when you have to explain it to someone?

I'm doing what I'm doing and I’ve found a position in which I can survive and so… It's funny, nobody asks me! Even my wife, even the person I'm closest to in the world. I think it kind of escapes her and always has. I could graze my knee and she would make much more of a fuss over the sight of a little blood than the fact that I'm shattered for the whole day. It’s so difficult.
Click to expand...
 
6720.jpg

Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian: ‘My wife said to me, don’t put any sex in the book.’ Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer
Books interview
Fiction

Interview
Stuart Murdoch: ‘I feel like this book will be the Trainspotting of ME’
Killian Fox
The Belle and Sebastian musician on his new novel, inspired by his long struggle with chronic fatigue, choirs and his love of Victorian authors

Killian_Fox,_L.png

Sat 28 Sep 2024 19.00 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...ike-this-book-will-be-the-trainspotting-of-me

https://twitter.com/user/status/1840106286941184007
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Stuart Murdoch was born in 1968 and grew up in Ayr. In the late 80s, he fell ill with ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and was laid low for seven years. By 1995, he had regained sufficient energy to start the indie pop band Belle and Sebastian, which is still going strong today, 12 albums later. Murdoch published a memoir in 2010 and wrote and directed the 2014 film God Help the Girl. Now he’s written an autobiographical novel, Nobody’s Empire. Murdoch spoke to me from Glasgow where he lives with his wife, Marisa Privitera, and their two sons.

The story you tell in Nobody’s Empire is very similar to your own story of dealing with ME and becoming a songwriter in your early 20s. Why did you decide to write it as a novel and not a memoir?I think it’s my natural storytelling guise – it’s become natural for me, maybe as a born liar or something [laughs]. When you’re writing songs, you’re in a certain mode and you can get away with more stuff – songs are a step away from reality – and I just found that world easier to inhabit. But there were practical reasons as well: it was a long time ago and I was making up the conversations.

Your early years with ME sounded really tough. Was it difficult revisiting them?I was corresponding with Michael, who I lived with for those years (the character of Richard in the book is based on him somewhat), and we were agreeing that these were some dark times, but I said to him: “It’s funny, I had such a nice time revisiting it.” Maybe it’s that rose-coloured spectacles thing, but I find that when you look at an episode of your life like a story or a movie, it becomes way easier to handle. In some regards, you’ve mastered it.
Click to expand...

Stuart Murdoch: ‘I feel like this book will be the Trainspotting of ME’ (msn.com)
 
Thanks for sharing.

I never saw the movie Trainspotting (I know, I know... :bag:) so don't quite understand what S. Murdoch means when he says he hopes his book will be like Trainspotting for ME. Like bringing something out to a wider audience?
 
I only saw Trainspotting as a teen, so not very recently but I remember there were some pretty disgusting (drug-related) scenes in it and my first thought was maybe he somehow wants to show the ugly or shocking side of the disease or similar.

But I'm probably wrong as this is the paragraph about this:

How big a presence is ME in your life now?

Coping is the main thing. My baseline energy kept going up during the 90s and I was pretty good through the 2000s, but I was always protecting myself. I built this thing around me that I could do, which was the band. We’d always scurry away and hide and rest. Then I was found out a little bit by marriage and kids and I took a dip. Obviously I’m way more active than so many poor people with ME, and I sometimes feel this book will be like the Trainspotting of ME. I wanted to write an inspiration for people who are stuck with it. So I hope people can accept this book as an entertainment as well as something compassionate.
Click to expand...

His ME/CFS started in the 80s but it improved a lot after years of living with the disease. The main character in Trainspotting
has a drug problem but eventually leaves the junkie lifestyle behind and starts a new life
. So I guess that's probably the similarity or inspirational part? I don't know, I haven't read the book obviously but this is my guess based on that paragraph.
 
I think Murdoch has been misquoted in the press about trainspotting. It was on twitter. It was a reference to how some people with ME might think his book is a bit lite and like watching trainspotting after reading the book.

Not that it's like trainspotting, he said it was a bad metaphor.

The book from it's prerelease doesn't look anything like the harshness of Trainspotting. But is a good hook for the press.

I'm not sure it will do pwME any favours as it looks like a feeling good, yes I can still overcome story. But haven't read it yet.

Let's just hope it isn't ghostwritten as he claims he isn't a reader. Which is never a good sign for an author.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top