Review of Unrest (2017) by Xoxo_Heidi — 04 Oct 2017

This is not an easy to watch documentary but necessary for those working in healthcare as clinicians, surgeons, and support staff as well as government healthcare organizations and the families and friends of patients to understand the struggles faced by those who are suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Jennifer Brea brings you into her world by turning the camera on herself as she struggles to get out of bed, crawls on the floor to get around, and interviews patients and scientists in order to explain her disease to the viewer. She is one of the severely ill but the disease that impacts up to one million in the US and millions more worldwide can differ in severity from patient to patient and can fluctuate in severity over the years and decades. There are no approved treatments.

Ms. Brea and her husband Omar Wasow struggle together to find a new path for their once very promising lives both professionally and personally. Social media led her to find many others that have been ill for decades, some involved in advocacy and a handful of researchers working with very little money for many years.

The documentary has had a positive impact on mass media who until recently reported negatively of the patients (malingerers, lazy) and incorrectly on the disease as a mental health issue and supporting the bad research which ultimately promoted exercise as treatment when in fact exertion, physical or mental, makes the patient worse. Brea herself collapsed after a walk home from her doctor and was bedridden for more than 2 years. She has not returned to her former unwell health prior to that walk home and now uses a wheelchair. When able to sit up must keep her legs tucked underneath her so blood does not pool to her feet as she also has POTS (often a comorbid of ME/CFS). Ms. Brea has now found a new career path in her documentary filmmaking as well as advocacy for funding research.