But You Look So Good

Anxiety can feel very different when you live with a chronic illness. When your body has become unpredictable, your nervous system can begin to stay on high alert — scanning for symptoms, preparing for worst-case scenarios, and struggling to fully relax.In this episode, we explore the relationship between chronic illness and anxiety through a psychological lens. We discuss hypervigilance, uncertainty, medical trauma, health anxiety, and why anxiety often makes sense in the context of living with an unpredictable body. We also share practical and compassionate strategies to help manage anxiety without minimising the very real experiences that can drive it.Links ⁠⁠⁠Livology (Psychology - Private Practice)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MS: Get Your Head Around It! (Online Course)⁠⁠⁠⁠But You’ll Be OK (Online Course)⁠⁠Webinars and Resources⁠If you need any support after listening to our podcast, you can contact Lifeline in Australia at 13 11 14, available 24/7. For support in other locations, please visit⁠ ⁠Befrienders Worldwide⁠⁠.⁠⁠Instagram @butyoulooksogoodpodcast⁠⁠

 What does it take to keep going when your body, your career, and your identity all shift at once? In today's episode, we sit down with Amy, a doctor from the UK who has lived that very question. Her story begins in 2011 weeks before her wedding when she woke up, unable to feel half her body as a doctor. She suspected multiple sclerosis. Getting anyone to take her seriously was another story. We follow her through years of symptoms. She pushed aside a clinically isolated syndrome diagnosis, and then 2020 when long COVID left her bedridden with dangerously low oxygen levels and unable to work. What followed was loss on multiple fronts, her job, her partnership, and a close friendship. Amy speaks openly about the PTSD that followed the grief of losing a career she loved and the slow, messy process of rebuilding. She also reflects on how becoming a patient changed the way she practices medicine and the advocacy work. She's since stepped into speaking up for those with invisible chronic illness, a conversation about illness identity, and finding your way through it.⁠⁠⁠Livology (Psychology - Private Practice)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MS: Get Your Head Around It! (Online Course)⁠⁠⁠⁠But You’ll Be OK (Online Course)⁠⁠Webinars and Resources⁠If you need any support after listening to our podcast, you can contact Lifeline in Australia at 13 11 14, available 24/7. For support in other locations, please visit⁠ ⁠Befrienders Worldwide⁠⁠.⁠⁠Instagram @butyoulooksogoodpodcast⁠⁠

Fatigue is one of the most common—and misunderstood—parts of living with a chronic illness. In this episode, we unpack what fatigue really is (hint: it’s not just being tired), why it happens, and why it can feel so unpredictable and overwhelming. Drawing on both our clinical work and lived experience, we explore the physical, cognitive, and emotional layers of fatigue—and the science behind it.We also revisit themes from our early episode “I get tired too”, where we looked at the impact of comparisons and (mostly) well-meaning misunderstandings.Most importantly, we share practical ways to explain fatigue to others—so you can feel better understood, set clearer boundaries, and reduce that frustrating gap between how you feel and how you’re perceived.Whether you live with fatigue or support someone who does, this episode will help make the invisible, visible.⁠⁠⁠Livology (Psychology - Private Practice)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MS: Get Your Head Around It! (Online Course)⁠⁠⁠⁠But You’ll Be OK (Online Course)⁠⁠Webinars and Resources⁠If you need any support after listening to our podcast, you can contact Lifeline in Australia at 13 11 14, available 24/7. For support in other locations, please visit⁠ ⁠Befrienders Worldwide⁠⁠.⁠⁠Instagram @butyoulooksogoodpodcast⁠⁠

 What does it feel like to be 35 years old, living abroad, building a career you love, and then having a doctor tell you in five minutes that you have Parkinson's disease? Today's guest, Devon, was doing exactly that, working in refugee protection across the globe when a small tremor in her right hand at a late night dinner in Greece changed everything. In this conversation, Devin opens up about what it's really like to live with early onset Parkinson's. The shock of a diagnosis that most people don't face until their sixties, the years of quietly carrying it, while continuing to do deeply meaningful work and the tension between what others see and what's happening underneath. She reflects on identity being viewed differently and what it's like to move through the world when your life no longer fits the expected timeline and how she's been making sense of that in her own way. We hope you enjoy.⁠⁠⁠Livology (Psychology - Private Practice)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MS: Get Your Head Around It! (Online Course)⁠⁠⁠⁠But You’ll Be OK (Online Course)⁠⁠Webinars and Resources⁠If you need any support after listening to our podcast, you can contact Lifeline in Australia at 13 11 14, available 24/7. For support in other locations, please visit⁠ ⁠Befrienders Worldwide⁠⁠.⁠⁠Instagram @butyoulooksogoodpodcast⁠⁠