Diary: Diary of an Electrosensitive, Part I

Let me introduce myself. I am known as an "electrosensitive" (ES, or EHS if it is hyper). I am a fly in the ointment, someone who should not exist. I have a condition that is officially proclaimed to be psychosomatic, just like ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis), or like Morgellon's, but without all the solid physical evidence.

Chances are you've never heard of electrosensitivity. The back pages of your newspaper may have once, long ago, included a believe-it-or-not article on someone allergic to modern life. Or maybe they didn't. Ever hear of a tin-foil hat? Okay, I see you recognize me now.

Luckily, I am joined in my peculiar status with the likes of former WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland and maybe even our dearly beloved Dub'ya--about six years ago it was reported that he had a policy of asking the press to turn off their cell phones. It was reported just once, and then zip on it. Yep, he's probably one of us. So far he has not added any signing statements saying that he has the right to throw anyone in jail forever who so much as owns a cell phone--darn coward!

Dr. Brundtland did the apparently "honorable" thing and resigned after announcing she had this physical condition, which would prevent her from maintaining an unbiased (read "pro-corporate") point of view. The ES community had so much hope that she would be the one to break through the wall of silence on this. The news of her condition, however, never reached America. It barely made the back pages of Canadian and Japanese papers. I hear she still demands visitors to her office turn off their cell phones.

Like so many people with ES, Dr. Brundtland initially had a cell phone, but started experiencing headaches each time she used it, so she stopped using it, and then discovered that other people's cell phones caused her headaches. She is not the average slob, though. President of Norway for ten years, famed leader of the Brundtland Commission and a medical doctor in her own right, rather than running to her incredulous doctor to receive bland assurances and a prescription for tranquilizers, which is what most of us do, she had the presence of mind to organize a double-blind study of herself, having her staff place a cell phone, on or off, in the handbags of visitors to her office. Within a few minutes, she could tell if the phone was off or on with 100% reliability. She did this, she says, to avoid accusations of hysteria. Well, I haven't heard anyone call her hysterical. In fact, I haven't heard them call her anything.

Similarly, I can send carefully composed and referenced articles or letters to editors on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields and never get so much as an acknowledgement they were received, but I know good and well that if I were to write an irrational rant on this subject they would carry it.

In this series, I will present the experiences of people with ES, including myself. My own case is comparatively mild. I can still tolerate high EMF environments for short times, but found it necessary to abandon an urban lifestyle and retire at mid-life to a small rural community. In some senses, I think ES may be a blessing in disguise.