In her early forties, Sarah made the difficult decision to step away from a promising 20-year corporate career after experiencing severe burnout. What she didn’t know was her condition was a direct result of not being able to manage the early warning signs of stress. This led to full-blown ME/CFS, a life-altering condition she still navigates today.
Sarah is a Brisbane based author, speaker, and certified executive coach. Through her personal journey, she has embraced a life that values balance, self-awareness, and resilience. Sarah inspires others by sharing actionable insights and practical strategies for managing fatigue. Her new book, ‘Too Tired to Think’, is an intersection of hope and reality for those who battle long-term fatigue, and their carers.
You can find Sarah and all the details of her book at www.sarahvizer.com/tootiredtothink. Her book can also be purchased directly from Amazon – https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1763692906
Initially it was so confusing, and the medical industry just didn’t have any answers. My initial diagnosis was burnout, and I was treated for anxiety and depression. This only made things worse! I was left with a big void – feeling physically unwell, exhausted, drowning in brain fog and no answers as to why. It took me a couple of years to work through fully what was going on. Not only the physical effects, I needed to understand other aspects that also contributed – things like being high achieving, people pleasing, allergic to letting anyone down, and putting other people’s needs before my own.
ME/CFS took so much out of me, and it wasn’t until I found a doctor who believed in me that I felt supported medically. His words were, ‘Sarah, some people will have ME/CFS for 20 years or more, but that’s not going to be you, because I can see that spark in you, that willingness to try different things and go the whole journey until we find what works’. His kindness and care was an absolute gift.
My message to everyone with ME/CFS who needs support, not just medically but in life, is to try to find people to be around you who get you, and you can rely on. This can be such a difficult part of the journey – to be able to understand what’s going on with you for yourself, and then be able to communicate what you need to others. I’ve become so protective of where to put my precious energy and who I invest in. A critical ‘person’ has been my pup Oliver who was by my side when others couldn’t be. Also, never give up on love! I met my partner while I was 2 years into my ME/CFS journey, and he could see the real me – the energy I had inside me despite my fatigue.
A key strategy for improvement has been to become my own hero. This is about rediscovering the person I see in the mirror, reconnecting with my core identity. Along the way I’ve found greater agency within myself. I just don’t have the energy to spare to explain myself to others any more, or seek their approval. This growing confidence in myself as my own hero has been central to my journey and where I find myself today.
In my book ‘Too Tired to Think’ I talk about dark times, and there have been so many – the loneliness, sadness, frustration, grief, and shame. Writing it all down revealed how toxic my thoughts had become. These dark thoughts triggered not only emotional suffering, but physically even greater levels of fatigue. This is probably what scared me the most as I didn’t recognise the person I had become. The turning point was starting to become more aware of how I was thinking and feeling, and this awareness helped me better protect my precious energy. Instead I focussed on not sitting as long in negative thoughts and feelings, which over the years has allowed me to pull myself out this negative cycle.
One thing that no-one ever told me is about the marathon of improvement and recovery. It’s never just one straight line of experience, rather a constant wave of ups and downs – highs where we celebrate and the trough of lows which can feel devastating. Navigating these ups and downs is so challenging. When I’m in an up period, I optimistically over-schedule myself and can do way too much. When I’m in a down period, I can go very low and find it hard to maintain perspective. Pacing has become fundamental to managing the marathon of ME/CFS every day, creating what I now refer to as my ‘new normal’. This new normal replaces what we would typically refer to as recovery, allowing me to best managing living with ME/CFS.
My experience was so typical of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross grief cycle – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. I needed to find a way to manage these emotions, because fighting was energetically expensive, and I recognised the need to better safeguard my energy. I have come to accept that I will go through these stages at different times and that’s okay. Grief expert David Kessler described the sixth stage in grieving as Meaning. Writing a book was very helpful for me to find the meaning in my experience with ME/CFS.
We are delighted to share Emerge Australia Ambassador Bloom with her rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine to open and close our podcasts.
I’ve related to everything Sarah has said. I also learnt to pace myself. I was diagnosed with myalgic encephalitis in 1986. Fortunately I was seeing a doctor who recognised it and accepted it existed. He kept up to date with the latest research. I learned to pace before I heard of Emerge Australia but when I joined I found encouragement for the things I had put in place for myself. Recently I decided to try to do more with devastating effects. I’m exhausted and “too tired to think”. The brain fog is the worst thing and I don’t feel at all like myself, which is making me quite miserable. I need to take control of my emotions to help me improve. Like Sarah,I have a colour coded calendar but was putting too much on it. I definitely need more free time. I will certainly buy her book.