The artist adds: “It has taken me some time to understand the diagnosis, to adjust to it, and to decide how much I wanted to say about it publicly, Parkinson’s is different for everyone, and it can be unpredictable. Some days I’m so tired I can’t get the day moving at all. On others, it gives me a little more room to move, think, work and feel like myself.”Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder that effects nerve cells in the brain antd idoes not currently have a cure. Symptoms include tremors, stiffness, difficulty balancing and slowness of movement. Simon said that she was diagnosed after her mobility continued to worsen following replacement surgeries on her knees and one hip.

Although Simon has been affected physically, she has also struggled with “anxiety, depression, exhaustion and apathy” after her diagnosis. “That has been one of the hardest things to explain,” she said. “It is not simply sadness or laziness. It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list.” In addition to Parkinson’s, Simon also revealed that she was previously diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer, and underwent surgery for it amid her Parkinson’s treatment.