Nydahl’s Disease, a.k.a. "Annishthesia," is a particular kind of gafia or fafia with overtones of "burnout." The specific case for which the disease is named involved a young fan named Joel Nydahl, who published a monthly fanzine called Vega which some regarded as having been something of a focal point after Quandry folded. For the first anniversary issue, Nydahl knocked himself out producing a 100pp annish – a rare accomplishment in those days, particularly for a 16-year-old – but it was inferred that it apparently got comparatively little in the way of response. When the young fan editor promptly gafiated, it was assumed it must have been because he was puzzled and/or dismayed over the lack of response to such an huge effort on his part.
Walt Willis coined the term “Annishthesia” around 1954, citing two strains of the disease: Primary annishthesia is invariably fatal; the effort of putting together an annish becomes too much, and before it can be printed the fan editor succumbs to permanent gafiation. Secondary annishthesia, in which the annish is actually published (despite the fan ed in question suffering from pores stopped up with mimeo ink and fingers bleeding from errant staples), only to receive no (or at least extremely little) reaction from other fans, so that the disappointed editor slinks into glades of gafia and is never heard of again. Only frequent injections of egoboo can prevent this from happening. This secondary form was the one which fans inferred had happened to Nydahl.
It would appear, however, that in coming up with the disease, some of the assumptions made were unwarranted – Harry Warner Jr. cited correspondence from Nydahl which indicated that he received plenty of egoboo and praise for the issue and other friends of Nydahl have stated that the actual truth is that he had been falling behind at school while publishing his fanzine and so dropped out of fandom not in disgust or dismay over the poor response his final effort received but because he was entering college and had to stop letting his grades fall.
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
