At OMF, we know that every person’s experience with ME/CFS and Long COVID is unique. Beyond research, we want to highlight the lived experiences of the community.
Today, we’re proud to share the story of Sebastian, a musician from Vienna who has been living with severe ME/CFS for the past two years.
From his bed, Sebastian creates Drum & Bass. Two years ago, he was active, sporty, and highly driven. While living in Australia, he caught a virus and didn’t recover, forcing him to return home. Today, he is around 90% bedbound, and most of his days are spent resting, conserving energy, and pacing carefully to avoid crashes.
Music has always been central to Sebastian’s life. He works on music when he can, which gives him joy, purpose, and connection. His work has reached over 1.5 million streams on Spotify and has been played on Austria’s FM4. His new album is out now: Listen on Spotify.
He hopes listeners feel the emotions in his tracks. “One day I might be able to make music, and the next day it’s impossible again,” Sebastian says. “That makes it extremely hard to establish routines, and we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves because of that. We are already doing our best.”
We’d love to share more voices from the ME/CFS and Long COVID community. If you have a story you’d like to share, you can submit it through our Voices of ME portal here.
Hope for people with ME/CFS and Long COVID starts with research. At OMF, our mission is to drive and fund global collaborative research that unlocks disease biology, delivers precise diagnostics, and advances treatments—giving every patient a pathway to care and hope.
When you become a monthly donor — a Hope Builder — you provide steady support that helps sustain critical research programs and move discoveries forward.
If you are able, please consider becoming a Hope Builder today. Your ongoing support helps turn uncertainty into progress — and progress into hope.