Amy

Amy Smith is a nineteen year old girl whose passions in life are Irish coffee, reading and shoes (because as she says you can more easily find perfectly fitting shoes than clothes. Although alas that statement doesn't apply to me). She also happens to have been my best friend since I was two months old (she is two months younger).

She came to visit every Friday throughout every stage of my illness; during the years when I was in the dark, mute, underweight and unable to wash properly; the period when I was tube-fed and my Dad carried me downstairs every morning to my special 'day' room downstairs next to the guinea pigs; when I started to talk again; to recover enough to sit up and chat with her; eventually progressing to getting out of my room into the dining room. We would chat for about an hour and Mum would have made some home-made snack.
In September she went off to University in Reading so those times are now mostly a thing of the past except occasionally during the holidays. I do genuinely miss her. She was one of my few contacts with the outside world. Its so easy when your on your own-i-o all the time to get wrapped up in your own daft thoughts, to lose your grip on reality and let your problems grow untill they overpower you. Seeing someone else, even if you don't confide in them, puts your life into perspective. On your own its easy to lose that.

Amy is a proper friend as well; someone who knows you really well and will always remain a friend despite anything, whatever happens, if your naughty, you disagree on something or are terribly depressed. I mean I do have other people in my life, I have people I can text whom I've met on forums and a few other old schoolfriends. But they don't know me half as well and frequently I either feel I'm putting on an act or when I say what I really think they take it the wrong way and get offended. Espeically with my ME friends because I feel the problems I've encountered during my ME are generally ones my 'fellow' sufferers don't like to confront, also I've had a pretty severe, classic type that they don't all understand. Often lately I've felt are friendships are rather one-sided, they tell me their problems but I'm unable to tell them mine. I'm sorry if I'm sounding rather unkind

Amy went through my ME with me and understands better than anyone (apart from my parents) what I've been through.