How To Live with Uncertainty and Find Hope in the Midst of Chronic Illness with Marisa Renee LeeHow To Live with Uncertainty and Find Hope in the Midst of Chronic Illness with Marisa Renee Lee
The One You Feed
Eric Zimmer and Marisa Renee Lee talk about living with long Covid, grief and chronic pain while facing deep uncertainty. The conversation focuses on hope as a practice, redefining identity, asking for help and finding ways to live meaningfully even when life does not improve quickly.
50:50•14 Apr 2026
Living with Long-Term Uncertainty: Hope, Pain and Help with Marisa Renee Lee
Episode Overview
- Name uncertainty honestly instead of minimising it; pretending things are fine tends to make the stress worse.
- Shift focus from who you used to be to small signs of progress, asking what you can do this month that you couldn’t do last month.
- Separate pain from suffering by seeking creative ways to manage symptoms rather than refusing all options on principle.
- Let a bad day be a bad day and decide in advance what your personal "emergency plan" looks like for those times.
- Be specific and realistic when asking for help, and remember you are worthy of support even if past experiences or culture suggest otherwise.
“"I don't know that we ever reach a point in life where it's like, okay, I'm healed, period. All good. See you guys later."”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober when life throws long-term illness, grief and uncertainty into the mix? This conversation between host Eric Zimmer and writer Marisa Renee Lee centres on how to keep going when nothing feels stable and the future is completely up in the air.
Drawing from her experience with long Covid, Marisa talks about going from being "overly able" to struggling to walk around her own home, think clearly, or even open a laptop without pain. She’s candid about months of denial, the fear of worsening symptoms, and comparing herself to the "old Marissa" who could juggle work, parenting and life with ease.
Instead of pretending things are fine, she explains why "the only way that we make our way through uncertainty is by being honest about what it is." The episode digs into chronic pain and emotional distress in a way that will resonate with anyone who’s lived through addiction, withdrawal, or the messy aftermath of quitting drinking.
Marisa shares how she learned to separate pain from suffering, embracing treatments she once resisted and reminding herself, "I didn’t want to choose suffering." Her image of emotional wounds as an old sports injury that still aches "when it rains" is especially relatable for those who know sobriety doesn’t magically fix everything. You’ll also hear about identity versus essence – the difference between being "smart" or "productive" and being remembered as loving, joyful or kind.
Marisa talks about her mother’s illness and death, and how that shaped her views on hope, end-of-life choices and living as well as possible, even when things won’t get better. For anyone dealing with chronic illness, grief, or long-haul recovery, this episode offers practical ideas on asking for help, letting "a bad day be a bad day", and choosing love as a daily practice. What kind of person do you want to be, even when life hurts?
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