Marina Opens Up About Tiring Illness: ‘It’s Been Hard to Remember What Healthy Feels Like’

Marina Diamandis, the pop singer who performs using just her first name, opened up on Wednesday about her recent diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. “I’ve had symptoms like deep fatigue, numbness, tingling, brain fog, rashes, insomnia and a feeling of being ‘poisoned’ for so long it’s been hard to remember what healthy feels like,” she wrote on Instagram. “My baseline energy has been at 50 – 60 percent for a long time. Aside from a few periods of remission, the last 7 years have consisted of relying on adrenaline and willpower to push me through each day.”

The National Library of Medicine defines the illness, which is also known as “myalgic encephalomyelitis,” as “a complex multisystem disease” and lists several of the same symptoms as Marina’s. “[It] can severely impair patients’ ability to conduct the activities of daily living,” it says. Some other celebrities who have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome include the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand.

Two months ago, Marina suffered a flareup that included “shooting pains and burning sensations all over my hands, legs, and back,” according to her post. After consulting with doctors and reading material about the illness, the singer said she learned that the symptoms come from a “hypersensitive nervous system.” She describes it as, “my body has felt stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode.”

Marina went on to say that since she has learned how to restrain her nervous system, she’s feeling better. “My energy levels are around 65 – 70 percent most days and the dips I have are shorter,” she wrote. Once she heals more, she’s determined to resume what she calls her creative life.

“I’ve also cultivated a deeper empathy for the millions of people who live silently with chronic illness,” she wrote in her post. “It’s hard to maintain optimism when the world feels like it’s moving on without you, but hope always exists. Answers always exist. The body wants to heal — and what I’ve learned is you have to work with it, not against it.”

Marina’s most recent album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, came out in 2021. Marina last performed onstage at a concert in Mexico City last November. In March 2022, Marina took to social media to criticize what she described as censorship in Brazil, after a political official sought to ban “political demonstrations” at the Lollapalooza festival there. “Censorship is still alive and well,” she wrote. “President Jair] Bolsonaro’s lawyers have petitioned to the Supreme Electoral Court to stop artists from making ‘political demonstrations,’ due to me and 2 other artists voicing opinions at Lolla.”