"I Can Literally Stress Myself to Death" | Addison's Disease

Sickboy

CBC

Society & Culture

4.8 • 524 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You can’t hike your way out of an adrenal crisis.

After a sudden diagnosis of Addison’s disease at 23, Aly’s life changed in a single phone call—from invincibility to a strict medication schedule and emergency steroid injections. She shares the harrowing early signs of adrenal failure, the shock of navigating life-threatening illness, and the second crisis that forced her to take her condition seriously. But this isn’t just about survival. It’s about adaptation. Aly opens up about “rewilding” herself back into the outdoors, reclaiming joy in hiking and surfing while living in manual mode. From hospitalizations to heartbreak, this episode explores chronic illness, self-advocacy, and finding strength in the body you have—even when it betrays you.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's becoming pretty clear that U.S. President Donald Trump is ripping up the political
0:05.3	playbook.
0:05.8	And when it comes to what it all means for Canada, well, as they say, it's complicated.
0:09.8	But our podcast, two blocks from the White House, is a way to make sense of it all.
0:13.8	Join me, Willie Lowry, and senior Washington correspondents, Paul Hunter and Katie Simpson
0:18.6	every week as we break down the headlines from Capitol Hill with a Canadian spin.
0:24.2	Find and follow two blocks from the White House on your favorite podcast app, including YouTube.
0:30.2	This is a CBC podcast.
0:34.1	Hello, everybody. This week on Sick Boy, we are joined by our new pal, Allie, a dog-loving surfer who at 23 went from thinking that she was invincible to being told that she needs steroids three times a day for the rest of her life. And the unfortunate part about all of that is that she is no more jacked than she was
0:59.0	when she started taking them.
1:01.2	The diagnosis, Addison's disease, which is a rare and unpredictable condition that
1:06.3	means Allie's body can't produce the hormones needed to handle stress of any kind. In this episode,
1:14.5	Allie opens up about what it's like to live with an invisible illness and the radical
1:21.0	process she calls rewilding, which is basically a return to the outdoors on her own terms.
1:27.6	We loved this conversation.
1:29.3	Allie's a true G, and we hope you enjoyed as much as we did.
1:33.7	And hey, look, folks, our goal of changing the way that the world thinks and talks about illness, disease, death, and everything in between.
1:41.8	It takes a group effort, so please be sure to follow Sickboy on your favorite podcast app.
1:48.6	Share this episode with someone you care about.
1:51.0	Come on over to our YouTube and watch the show there.
1:54.3	Leave a like, leave a comment.
1:55.5	All that stuff really does mean a lot.
	...

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