Descent into MS: Making Use of Broken Pieces & MS Thinking

Descent into MS

A podcast by Grahame Brown

Episode 2: Making Use of Broken Pieces and MS Thinking

In this four-part episode, Grahame Brown explores the cognitive and emotional effects of Progressive MS. Through personal stories, reflection, and dry humour, he examines how the condition affects memory, thought, and self-understanding.

Part 1: Reframing the Broken

Grahame shares three memories: a ruined tower seen on childhood visits to his granny, a chaotic bullfight in Madrid, and an imagined white horse tethered to a roundabout. These moments explore how damaged or invented things can still offer direction, comfort, or meaning, especially when life becomes difficult to navigate.

Part 2: Misplaced Meaning

A story about a broken statue mistaken for a lucky charm becomes a reflection on how we assign value when familiar roles are lost. Humorous but pointed, it raises questions about usefulness, embarrassment, and the stories we build to make sense of change.

Part 3: Disruption, Memory and Meaning

Grahame describes the period before his diagnosis, marked by confusion, low moods, and intrusive thoughts. He recalls the shift that came with understanding his symptoms as neurological, and contrasts this with memories of childhood in the 1980s, now experienced as both nostalgic and alien.

Part 4: Support and Survival

In closing, Grahame reflects on how shared experience and conversation offer a way through. Exchanges with others who have MS help make sense of what is happening. He returns to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to explore the limits of escape and the quiet act of staying, not fixed but present.

Resources and Links:

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey / Milos Forman)
• Revive MS Support Glasgow
• MS Society

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