“Imagine you’re diagnosed with epilepsy: what would you think if you weren’t referred to a specialist but taken to a psychiatrist to treat you for your ‘false illness beliefs’? This is what happens to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) patients in the UK. They are told to ignore their symptoms, view themselves as healthy, and increase their exercise. The NHS guidelines amalgamate ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, assuming symptoms are caused by deconditioning and ‘exercise phobia’. Sufferers are offered Graded Exercise to increase fitness, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to rid them of their ‘false illness beliefs’.” PrejudiceStigmaChronic Fatigue SyndromeMyalgic EncephalomyelitisChronic FatigueFalse AssumptionsChronic Illness StigmaFalse BeliefsMedical MalpracticeIllness StigmaGraded ExerciseUnethical Treatment Author:Tanya Marlow
“With a strange logic, [Rod Liddle] asserts that because ME patients deny that they have a psychiatric disorder, this proves they have a psychiatric disorder. Meanwhile, people are quietly dying of ME. ME sufferer Emily Collingridge died, aged 30; Victoria Webster died at just 18. People don’t die from ‘exercise phobia’. ME is not ‘lethargy’ and ‘aches and pains’, as Liddle claims. Severe ME is lying in a darkened room, alone, in agonising pain, tube-fed, catheterised, too weak to move or speak.” StigmaIllogicalCfsChronic Fatigue SyndromeMyalgic EncephalomyelitisMedical EthicsGraded Exercise TherapyChronic Illness StigmaFalse BeliefsFaulty ThinkingExercise PhobiaMedicall Unexplained Author:Tanya Marlow
“M.E. isn't just 'exercise phobia': it is a physical illness.” StigmaMyalgic EncephalomyelitisChronic Illness StigmaFalse AssumptionExercise PhobiaChronic Fatifure Syndrome Author:Tanya Marlow