Marina Diamandis, known under her stage name Marina and the Diamonds, has revealed that she was recently diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.
The condition, also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), resulted in symptoms such as “deep fatigue, numbness, tingling, low appetite, brain fog, rashes, insomnia and a feeling of being ‘poisoned’ for so long”, the 37-year-old Welsh singer wrote in an Instagram update.
Diamandis shared that she was only diagnosed with ME after “seven years of health issues”, adding that “it’s been hard to remember what healthy feels like”.
“My baseline energy has been at 50 to 60 per cent for a long time,” she continued in her post. “Aside from a few periods of remission, the last seven years have consisted of relying on adrenaline and willpower to push me through each day.
“Recovery started two months ago after an unusually bad flare-up that involved shooting pains and burning sensations all over my hands, legs and back,” Diamandis revealed.
“After seeing countless doctors, I started working with a functional medicine practitioner to find the root cause of the symptoms.”
Functional medicine is a form of alternative medicine that focuses on identifying and treating the root cause of a disease. It falls outside of mainstream healthcare and is not offered by the NHS – although the NHS has recommended the use of some alternative medicines like acupressure and manual therapy for a limited number of circumstances.
In her post, Diamandis claimed that her symptoms “are a result of a hypersensitive nervous system” that developed in response to “chronic stress”.
“My body has felt stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode and there were many warning signs it gave me before the worst symptoms set in,” she wrote.
Amid her treatment, which she claimed helps to “retrain the nervous system to regulate itself again”, the “Primadonna” singer added that she is “feeling better today than I have in a long time”.
“My energy levels are around 65 to 70 per cent most days and the dips I have are shorter,” she said. “Healing is demanding a lot of my energy and attention right now, but the better I feel, the sooner I can get back to my creative life again. I worked yesterday for the first time in a while yesterday and it felt so good.”
Diamandis also said that living with ME has given her a “deeper empathy for the millions of people who live silently with chronic illness”.
“It’s hard to maintain optimism when the world feels like it’s moving on without you, but hope always exists. Answers always exist,” she said. “The body wants to heal – and what I’ve learned is that you have to work with it, not against it.”
ME is a long-term condition with a wide range of symptoms, but the most common one is extreme tiredness. It can affect anyone, including children, but tends to develop between a person’s mid-twenties and mid-forties.
An estimated 250,000 people in the UK suffer from ME, with around 17 million sufferers around the world. It is more common in women.
According to the NHS, there is no cure for ME. Treatments that may help sufferers manage the condition include cognitive behavioural therapy, energy management and medicine to control symptoms such as pain and sleeping problems.
Diamandis released her most recent studio album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land in June 2021. She embarked on a world tour last year to promote the record.
