When I was 21, a senior in college, I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), an understudied chronic neuroimmune condition. Load YouTube videoMurdoch was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at age 21 as well. Chronic fatigue syndrome flattened him — he couldn’t work, and he couldn’t go to school. Still, without chronic fatigue syndrome, he feels he wouldn’t have written the songs he did. Chronic fatigue syndrome, by nature, doesn’t always resolve.