Jack Monroe #23 Life would be so much easier if everyone was a chronic optimist.

[Silver Linings]

Every. Single. Time. I have a morning off she goes off on one.

 

[Begborrowsteal]

You guys are far better at articulating it all than me. I just cant get beyond - what a bleep.

 

[ReginaPhalangee]

Every. Single. Time. I have a morning off she goes off on one.

You have mornings off? You mean you don’t work 20 hours a day like Jack??!!

 

[emm]

I've just got round to watching the insta video and I cant believe how woefully underprepared Jack was, I mean if I was to turn up to my job so badly unprepared and unready I'd be lucky if I still had a job by the end of it.

Even if you were to ignore the first 10 minutes of video of her muttering to herself and sorting everything out ...(which she'd had all day to do!)
I just cannot bloody believe she didnt even have a decent knife handy to start with, I mean surely if you are cooking that's got to be one of the main essentials to have standing by?!

I loved Chetna though, she was brilliant so calm and soothing and knowledgable Jack/Helmans should be doubling Chetnas fee for the amount of carrying the show she did

I wonder if she had seen the last week show or dkl? If not she must have been shocked, I’m waiting for the day they get someone who is just like her and there will just be 55 minutes of silence

 

[Silver Linings]

apologies are for blue tickers only, as per.

You have mornings off? You mean you don’t work 20 hours a day like Jack??!!

I know! The audacity!!

 

[Cookiecookie]

Why is she bringing up her old name all of a sudden?

I have never made custard beyond opening a sachet and stirring I have made tarts though (but not of the custard variety ) So arrogant to go into such a setting having made neither, I bet the rest of the kitchen loved having her there...

 

[Silver Linings]

She’s off on one and I can’t read them all and they’ll inevitably soon be deleted. Thing is she makes me angry even when she’s cicling the point, but it’s always about her. Infuriating.

 

[ReginaPhalangee]

Who was she replying to there @Silver Linings ? She owes so many of her followers an apology but apparently if you don’t have a blue tick you ain’t worth her time. What a witch

 

[Silver Linings]

Why is she bringing up her old name all of a sudden?

I have never made custard beyond opening a sachet and stirring I have made tarts though (but not of the custard variety ) So arrogant to go into such a setting having made neither, I bet the rest of the kitchen loved having her there...

A sachet, how fancy! Too much effort for me i’m afraid, own brand tin and a digestive to dunk and i’m away.

 

[Grizzlybear]

Victim of racism and misogyny, two boxes ticked in one go!

Um I’m sure I’ve heard or read this exact story (perhaps even o this very thread or another, if not social media), shared by a WOC last week? Call me cynical... Also now’s not the time for you, Jack mate. Can we just hear the voices you allegedly wanted to give a platform to instead of hearing about your made up nonsense?

 

[Silver Linings]

Who was she replying to there @Silver Linings ? She owes so many of her followers an apology but apparently if you don’t have a blue tick you ain’t worth her time. What a witch

Someone called Lisa Markwell. Sunday times food editor apparently. She did a course and Jack moaned she can’t afford one.

 

[Cookiecookie]

A sachet, how fancy! Too much effort for me i’m afraid, own brand tin and a digestive to dunk and i’m away.

That does sound good. They actually sell it here in 2L bottles in with the milk. I know someone who used to chug it like milkshake

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Every. Single. Time. I have a morning off she goes off on one.

You lucky thing, every time I have time to watch her lives she stands me up! I’m like a ghosted tinder date.

On names - I do believe it but I don’t exactly think it’s relevant to her she’s scarcely had any jobs (despite the list).

I get it a lot at work, I work in a technical discipline and I’m the only woman out of a 100+ department. Whenever anyone writes to me they use the male version of my name Or if someone is told to speak to me they enquire as if I’m the PA/junior who will put them in touch with the relevant person, no hun I’m the head of Tbh I’m far more bothered by the huge gender pay gap I’ve experienced for the last decade than anyone assuming my gender

 

[emm]

Morning - I feel I need to drop in on this. Apologies for the essay, but it's important to me.

With inflammatory arthritis, you can have periods of remission and relapse if you're lucky. From the many photographs, her hands and feet do look fucked, albeit not in active disease as there is no swelling. One of the common medications, a DMARD called Methotrexate which is still used in much higher doses as a chemotherapy treatment, can and does cause at least some hair loss in many people. Uncontrolled inflammation is now known to affect mood in itself, rather than just as a consequence of being in pain.

It is also possible, particularly if you have periods of remission, to exercise, weight train and do a lot that means whilst you feel absolutely dreadful, you still have a lot of muscle mass and residual strength; you also get very good on posture. Interestingly, a lot of people experience remission shortly after commencing an entirely vegan/plantbased diet, but this doesn't tend to last because if you aren't absolutely 100% wanting to protect/save/whatever animals, it's still bastarding hard to do, it can be very triggering for disordered eating and like it or not, it's very, very difficult to keep vitamin and mineral levels up so you can end up with all sorts of deficiencies, including Vitamin D deficiency, which can mean you end up with something like osteomalacia, low mood and insomnia.

Consistent steroid use, whether oral (yuk), intra-articular injections (yuk, yuk, yuk, yuk) or through intramuscular injections (meh) that Rheumatologists can give you can be like magic energy meds as, within a short time, you feel bleeping invincible, but they have hidden costs - they also duck up your bone density in the long term and, in the short term can trigger hyper behaviour even without ADHD or bipolar as well as the natural human response of 'I can DO STUFF! Let's GO!' where you rush around doing eleven million things at once, eat all the food and become generally insufferable before they wear off or you inevitably damage yourself and crash again. If you add in a likely element of hypermobility (as per dancing), you have unstable joints, additional pain, clumsiness and more bastarding pain even when the joints themselves aren't inflamed.


Of all the stuff Jack gets the side eye from me about, I completely believe the RA. And it is very common for women to be told they have bipolar/depression/it's all in their head when they describe such symptoms as pain, tiredness, insomnia and lack of grip strength, so they acquire a mental health diagnosis or two long before anybody stops and actually books a few blood tests - being persuaded to take some antidepressants when you don't need them, you need something designed to damp down inflammation, is roughly the same as necking a handful of Ecstasy, just without the cool music - everything is too bright, too loud, too disorienting, and you go essentially batshit from lack of sleep and being pilled off your tits. Whilst your hands/feet/back/hip/knee/whatever still all hurt like duck.

And, of course, when you go back to the GP and tell them this, they first of all double/triple/quadruple your dose for 6-12 months before referring you on to a Psychiatrist, who never, ever thinks of anything other than mental health and how to medicate that. Bingo, bipolar diagnosis. Have some antipsychotics on top of Depakote. Don't read the side effects leaflet where it says that this can increase inflammatory processes in your body, whatever you do. And don't pay any heed to the leaflet on Tramadol where it says that can have exactly the same effect upon you as another handful of bad Es. Because you aren't depressed or bipolar, you have inflammatory arthritis that isn't being treated appropriately whilst they wank about with all this psychoactive tit to confirm their prejudices about women all being hysterical/mental.

If then, because you are naturally very suspicious of any medications, get to see a Rheumatologist who recommends some other medications that have serious side effects like sight loss, liver failure (so you mustn't drink), fatal infections or in the long term, cancer, you might be reluctant to take them. After all, everything else you've been told will work has hurt you. So you decline in favour of pain medication. BIG mistake. You're now chemically dependent on those and they aren't actually all that good at handling the sort of pain you have. Plus the Rheumatology Department discharges you as any GP can prescribe those. You're back to square one, only with mental health diagnoses, a note on your records that you could be exhibiting drug seeking behaviour and no access to say 'actually, I'd like to reconsider those DMARDs now' within under 9 - 12 months (new referral, waiting time, first appointment, return in 3 (knocked back to 5) months with test results, need to repeat tests because they're over 3 months ago, return in 3/5, try this drug and come back in 3, etc, etc.



Even with a pretty much lifelong history of having had inflammatory arthritis, I still encounter medical personnel who don't believe me. Woe betide anybody who says 'So, what makes you think you have something wrong with you?'. And God help the person who says 'Have you considered the possibility that you think you're in pain because you're depressed?'. Or, as you get older 'Have you heard of a condition called Fibromyalgia? It's completely untreatable so we'll diagnose it and discharge you'.

I was first diagnosed at age 6. I'm now 47 and have been on medication that helps a lot for one year. That's all. One year. It has taken over 40 bleeping years to get a Psoriatic Arthritis label which now means I have access to stuff that actually helps.


Feeling snappy and sarcastic where that's concerned is an entirely reasonable response.



However - that doesn't give me the right to be a dick to anybody else outside the 'It must all be in your head' brigade. I don't lie, I don't make everything about meeeee (except for this post, obviously), I don't intentionally risk my employment opportunities or spout off publicly about people far more powerful or influential than I am when it has negative effects upon my future employability. I come up with the goods every single time. I'm not late, I'm not absent, I'm not obviously angry. Because I still need a roof over my head, I still need food on the table and I need some sort of financial stability for the future. It's not my fault. But it's happened. So I deal with it, ignore as much as I can, learned some extreme diplomacy and interpersonal skills and I am damn good at my job. I'm also a bloody good musician and technician. And actor.


Staying outwardly calm and getting the job done is the key. I might feel like screaming into the void sometimes, but inconveniently, there is always somebody in the way if I want to. So I don't. Because it's not their fault.

Collapse and hide or moan in private. When it's showtime, you get your tit together and you give the people their show.

Especially now, no one wants a cooking show that is actually stressful to watch, I’m always surprised nigella hasn’t been commissioned a new show atm

 

[Silver Linings]

 

[pompombear]

Can someone explain to me why she is on twitter saying she changed her name to "Jack" from a "difficult to pronounce, foreign sounding name"?

Wasn't her previous name Melissa?!

 

[Silver Linings]

I know we’ve all said it over and over but the Jack who replies to blue tickers is a whole other person, it’s truly bizarre. Then plebs try and join in and get the bitchy version. So rude and jarring.

 

[HarderFaster]

Just read that entire dialogue about "how she got her start in the food industry" and she's wheeled out the standard tale of "single mum, no electricity, living on £1 a day, no contacts whatsoever", and fair enough maybe she got a lucky break by having the wherewithal to write to the food editor at The Times but she also declines to add that not long after she got engaged to MILLIONAIRE CHEF, FOOD WRITER AND OWNER OF INTERNATIONAL CHAIN LEON Allegra McEvedy, who introduced her to hundreds of useful contacts in the world of food and media.

duck's sake.

 

[Pocahontas]

Can someone explain to me why she is on twitter saying she changed her name to "Jack" from a "difficult to pronounce, foreign sounding name"?

Wasn't her previous name Melissa?!

Think she means her birth surname.

 

[Silver Linings]

Can someone explain to me why she is on twitter saying she changed her name to "Jack" from a "difficult to pronounce, foreign sounding name"?

Wasn't her previous name Melissa?!

Yes. When I began following her, it was her dead name, which I 100% respect, as it didn’t match how she felt about herself. Now it was a career move. It was probably the last thing I believed her on tbh.
Edited to add, the surname is absolutely(!) a wise career move, she’s saying and I believe that, but this is new about her first name. Oh Jack, get a bloody notebook.