A letter to the newly diagnosed

We asked the people on our list one question: what would you say to yourself in the first week? These are their answers, lightly edited and published with permission.

• 01See a specialist early, and see a second one if the first is dismissive.
• 02Sleep is the first thing to protect. Everything is worse without it.
• 03Silence is not the goal. A full day is.
• 04Tell one person. Only one, if that is all you can manage.

This is a clothing house, not a clinic. Nothing here replaces care from a qualified professional — but nobody should spend week one alone with a search engine either.