07/12/2026
Please join us this Tuesday, July 14th @12:30pm for our discussion of Lena Dunham's Famesick! We'll be emailing out the Zoom link to all LADN members the morning of the meeting. If you're not currently on our member email list and would like to attend, please DM us or reach out by email at [email protected].
And we're so touched to have received a letter directly from writer Lena Dunham to the LADN community! Please enjoy her heartfelt words below. 😊
"Hello, Lena here!
I am honored to be read as part of your book club. As a POTS patient, I’ve had to learn so much about this condition on my own, and I love knowing that your members are getting to read together regularly and expand their understanding of their own experience, so that hopefully they can feel more confident and empowered talking to medical professionals or explaining their needs and their experience to colleagues, family and friends. My deepest goal with Famesick was to offer a picture of a misunderstood condition, but it was also to create a sense of community and being seen for other people whose experience of their body has not been reflected in popular culture. To know that it’s being shared with other dysautonomia sufferers is really really special to me.
On a personal note (well, I guess the whole book is a personal note, hehe) my beloved uncle Edward Wood Dunham passed away as a result of Multiple Systems Atrophy in 2015. The condition, which- like all dysautonomic conditions and conditions that result in secondary dysautonomia- was under researched and little understood, and we had to learn as a family what this meant for him and how to support him through the progression of the disease. I wish he had gotten to experience this community of like minded people, as there is a true bond that arises from sharing a medical diagnosis with others, things that can go unspoken but still be understood just because of a collective experience.
I am currently finishing up a book tour that was quite ambitious for someone with an energy limiting condition, and so I am taking a beat to regain my footing and settle back at home- as we know, pacing is important- so sadly I won’t be able to join the zoom discussion this coming month. But please feel free to share this message with your members, and I’ll take this moment to directly address them and say:
Thank you for reading Famesick, and even more so for urging us toward more open conversations about dysautonomia. I hope this book makes you feel a little less out of the ordinary and a little bit more understood. But if I could express one true wish, it would be that you all find a way to share what you’re going through. My chosen medium is writing, but- whether it’s a conversation in which you enlighten a loved one, a message board with other sufferers or just this book club- however you choose to enrich the world with your story, we will all be better for it.
Much love,
Lena"
