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Medical forum making fun of ME/CFS patients

Rrrr

Senior Member
Messages
1,591
Medical forum making fun of ME/CFS patients

This below link appears to be a forum of nurses and medical people who are focusing on making fun of ME/CFS in the most cruel way, including laughing at the most ill in our community.

I suggest folks from our community reply, but do so with information instead of with anger and simply attacking back, otherwise we risk confirming their misguided beliefs about us.

Also, at least one of them has infiltrated the ME/CFS forum Phoenix Rising and is posting there.

Start reading their forum here, and prepare to be horrified:
http://crass-pollination-forum.2287843.n4.nabble.com/Myalgic-Encephalomyelitis-td4607325.html

****Moderator note: when you click on links from this forum, like the one above, the traffic can be traced back to this forum. Some members here are reporting being blocked from posting (before actually posting), presumably due to being identified as traffic from this forum.****
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
Well, that's one good way to raise the ol' blood pressure this AM! What unbelievable gall and hubris they demonstrate. Makes me really hope karma exists...
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
There's not one of those folk fit to be in any part of the medical profession - not even to be cleaning the loos.
You'd have thought in the current job market, only the very brightest nurses would get hired - not morons.

I find the so-called "man-in-the street" knows more about real ME than any of them.
This is really frightening.
 
Messages
13,774
It looks like a pointless thread of people making thoughtless posts about other posts they found somewhere on the internet. It's only worth reading for those who need a reminder that people working in medicine are no better than anyone else imo.

This sort of thing is a good example of the sort of emotional reactions people have to CFS. 'I suffered from fatigue problems, and don't know what caused them or how I (largely) recovered from them - but I think that those who suffer more serious problems than me are crazy and taking advantage of others':

Back in the day (1989) I was diagnosed with CFS. I had muscle pain, fatigue and low grade fevers. Viral studies were off, immune studies (IGG<, IGM) showed an active infection. The head of Infectious Diseases at IU med Center said I had CFS and that I wasn't crazy (my family says this is open to debate).

Anyway, I didn't take to my bed. The only treatment they had to offer was to take a multivitamin daily. I continued to work full time. Things did suffer at home. My husband and kids had to help more. I would come home from work and collapse.

Whatever I had, it burned itself out after about three years. I still get tired easily, I just rest when I need to. Having been there, I think these people are nuts and taking advantage.

It's always fun to feel superior to others, and it's particularly easy to do so with those suffering from problems which we do not understand. The thread read like a long example of the Just World Delusion. No-one there seems to be interested in doing any serious research or reading on the matter, so I don't think it would be terribly worthwhile seeking out a discussion with them.
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
No-one there seems to be interested in doing any serious research or reading on the matter, so I don't think it would be terribly worthwhile seeking out a discussion with them.

I totally agree. Let's save ourselves the brain damage from arguing with idiots...
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
What a bunch of twisted, nasty, evil, stupid, ignorant ****s!

And they even have the gall to come out with the usual "oh it's only our bar talk!", yes, I've heard "talk" like that before, usually about "negras, kikes, spics" etc by Human vermin.
Anyone who was a medical professional with any common sense and actual experience, would know that over-sensitivity to the point of pain from light/sound is a well known problem with neurological conditions, ie meningitis.

"Oh it's jsut because their mommies coddled them too much!"
OI! ASSHOLES! So in your esteemed, brillaint opinions, is that also the cause multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons or AIDS, hm?
Bunch of assholes not fit to nurse a barbie doll, go ask for a refund 'cause you turned out defective!

CIA's still recruting for medicos willing to oversee their torture sessions, go join up, you'll enjoy it I'm sure and have a right good laugh about it all, 'cause at the moment all yer good for professionally is being shit nurses in a cholera ward!

PENDEJOS!
 
Messages
13,774
It looks like a pointless thread of people making thoughtless posts about other posts they found somewhere on the internet.

Actually - I have to acknowledge a degree of hypocrisy in my own response to random posts found somewhere on the internet (hopefully with mitigating factors).

I suppose that this is a reminder that CFS patients are no better than anyone else!
 

SilverbladeTE

Senior Member
Messages
3,043
Location
Somewhere near Glasgow, Scotland
Actually - I have to acknowledge a degree of hypocrisy in my own response to random posts found somewhere on the internet (hopefully with mitigating factors).

I suppose that this is a reminder that CFS patients are no better than anyone else!

True
but this case, we're dealing with medical professionals, who are in charge of the welfare of sick people
bigotry in such cases leads to suffering and death.
It is completely verboten for such people to treat patients with prejudice, for damn good reason, hence part of the Hippocratic Oath.
And that's what this is, nasty ignorant prejudice.

Bitching over our dumb politicians and other issues/idiots doesn't put them in harms way, only ridicule/not voting for them ;)
 
Messages
10,157
It seems to be a forum for nurses as far as I can tell.

Every profession has bad seeds. When I was actively nursing, I used to get a monthly report from the Ontario Nursing Association which included a list of who was suspended or lost their nursing licence and why. The CNA is very strict when it comes to professional standards and each one of these people posting on that forum would have their nursing licence taken from them if they publicly treated patients like that. Nurses abuse patients, they steal from patients, they abuse drugs, they steal drugs and do all sorts of things. Every profession has people that do this. Forums attract certain kinds of people. Obviously this one has nurses who congregate to bash others. They are disgusting but don't represent all Nurses everywhere.

The initial poster makes it a habit of posting insults regarding patients with FM and ME and so do a few others. To me they appear stupidly ignorant and mean spirited and not fit to even be in the profession of Nursing.

On a brighter side, I just finished reading a book written by a nurse for RN's that deals with ME/CFS. A wonderful book that definitely says that ME is not psychiatric disorder, that CBT is not appropriate, gives tons of information about re: symptom alleviation that does not focus on medications. I think books like this need to made part of a Nursing school's curriculum. When I was in Nursing school, I don't remembered things like ME or FM being mentioned at all. It was all focused on acute illnesses except for chronic stuff like diabetes. I wonder if things have changed. Nurses are actually supposed to focus on symptom alleviation -- like when a person is in pain -- you look at subjective and objective information, make an assessment, and then make a plan -- so for pain it would be planning to help the person cope with the pain with many different interventions -- there is no part of nursing that involves judging a person to be faking, or accusing them of having a psychiatric disorder when they have a physical problem with physical symptoms.

It saddens me that there are Nurses out there with this kind of attitude. I wonder how they behave in their jobs because if they behave like that in real life, they need to have their licences revoked for not maintaining professional standards.

Kina.
 

Rrrr

Senior Member
Messages
1,591
i really hope people WILL post some of these thoughts (that you all wrote above) on that forum.
 
Messages
13,774
True
but this case, we're dealing with medical professionals, who are in charge of the welfare of sick people

I know what you're saying, and the prejudices of those in positions of power do cause more problems... but I also feel uncomfortable about criticising posts on another forum when I don't criticise all the things that I disagree with here. It's a bit tribalist to hold a different group of people to different standards.

Having said that, I went back to the forum to read a bit more and found this:

First of all, even aside from the general creepiness, who thinks that an "attractive" 25-year-old with fibro even exists? I think the only people that age with fibro that even exist are morbidly obese lesbians with at least two mental health diagnoses.

I can't really be bothered with it. They compare their forum to the bar talk of police officers, and there are certainly similar problems to the thoughtlessness and prejudice which distorts the culture of many police forces; shaping the assumptions which lead to such problems in the way in which different communities are policed. It's still all to common for police officers to talk of different ethnicities or sexualities in this way. I wish that people would try a bit harder.
 
Messages
13,774
According to the original poster, she dropped out of nursing because of being bipolar.

Some small something to be thankfull for (that she's not nursing, not that she is bipolar.)

I don't want to criticise you personally, because I know what you meant to say, but using your post as an example, imagine if a poster there had said: 'Look at what this ME patient says, I'm so glad that they're to ill to get out of bed, as I'd hate to have someone like that working for me.'

It's easy to slip in to talking about other people in this way (I'm sure that I sometimes do it), but it's not really fair when we know so little about one another - our judgements about one another can be easily guided by little misunderstandings, prejudices or emotional responses.
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
I do not take Bipolar Disorder lightly.

I thought I'd made it absolutely clear that I'm glad that creature is simply not nursing.
(She's the one who labels herself BD on all her posts.)

But I agree with the last poster - that this forum should be reported to the nursing board - but which nursing board? -
Where is the forum (presumably somewhere english speaking) ?
 

Wonko

Senior Member
Messages
1,467
Location
The other side.
There's not one of those folk fit to be in any part of the medical profession - not even to be cleaning the loos.
You'd have thought in the current job market, only the very brightest nurses would get hired - not morons.

I find the so-called "man-in-the street" knows more about real ME than any of them.
This is really frightening.
I'd have thought only the cheapest nurses would be hired.....so the moron count maybe higher than you would think.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
I don't want to criticise you personally, because I know what you meant to say, but using your post as an example, imagine if a poster there had said: 'Look at what this ME patient says, I'm so glad that they're to ill to get out of bed, as I'd hate to have someone like that working for me.'

It's easy to slip in to talking about other people in this way (I'm sure that I sometimes do it), but it's not really fair when we know so little about one another - our judgements about one another can be easily guided by little misunderstandings, prejudices or emotional responses.

I don't agree. As I read it, Peggy-sue was saying that she was glad (as am I) that a person with the attitude demonstrated on that forum is not in the nursing profession. Most of us seem to agree with that sentiment, at least based on the comments here. I don't need to know any more about her than listening to the continuous ugliness of her posts to be comfortable concluding she should not be in any profession that involves caring for people.

Yes, everyone has moments of irritability, fatigue, or whatever and says things they might not otherwise. I don't judge people based on one ill-judged remark. A persistent pattern of ignorant vicious vitriol is something else entirely. She clearly knows nothing about ME/CFS and doesn't care enough to educate herself by reading information about the illness provided to her. I don't see any misunderstandings here. I am plenty comfortable saying that it's a good thing she's not in nursing.

I don't think the garbage on that forum is worth responding to. Anyone reading it knows that it's nasty, not informative, whatever they themselves believe about ME/CFS. Some people remain stuck in middle school all their lives. Fortunately, the rest of us can usually recognize them and just ignore them. Responding to her crap will just give her the attention she apparently wants.
 

Hope123

Senior Member
Messages
1,266
Think of it this way: most competent healthcare workers are usually too busy working, taking care of their families, enjoying life, and learning to be better healthcare workers, etc. than posting on a forum that makes fun of people who are ill. So, that leaves you with a selected population already, i.e. draw your own conclusions.