Severe ME/CFS - Media coverage in The Sun (UK)

[Old Bones]

Oh come on. How many other illnesses are still subjected to such blatant use of epithets. Does the Sun still call people retards when referring to the mentally handicapped?

I agree. Regardless, how many teens can accurately be labelled a "Young Urban Professional"? Hence, how can they have the "Yuppie Flu"?

 

[Jeckylberry]

What a confused hash of ideas! That's rubbish! First there is an insulting dismissive headline that gives the impression of something controversial and arrogant but the article just gives a few weak facts that don't suggest the kids are yuppies - it says it's more common in poorer families! If the title is deliberately ironic, then it should have inverted commas and more emphasis on the misnomer in the text. There's no real story at all, not even a picture of a rich young person wilting on a school bench.

 

[Hell...Hath...No...Fury..]

I think we should all fill up their email inbox and demand a public apology in the newspaper.

Its so long since i've heard that term i forgot there's still some idiots who use it.

 

[halcyon]

If the title is deliberately ironic, then it should have inverted commas and more emphasis on the misnomer in the text.

There comes a time when use of terms is no longer appropriate, ironically or not. I feel that time for yuppie flu was the very early 1990s when it became obvious that people with CFS are indeed sick.

 

[daisybell]

Most of the blame for the use of the term 'yuppie flu' in this instance should probably lie with Bristol University. They mentioned it in their press release... Which makes me wonder whether that was a deliberate attempt to try to get attention-grabbing headlines from the newspapers. The papers will naturally go for the most provocative headline they can.

 

[halcyon]

They mentioned it in their press release...

Sure enough.

Children from families experiencing greater adversity were more likely to have the condition, dispelling the commonly-held view that CFS is a ‘middle-class’ illness or ‘yuppie-flu’.

 

[Jeckylberry]

Yeah, @halcyon, they label something with an insult and then point out how insulting it is, only the horse has bolted. The article is surely meant to be ironic but I agree, there is language that should not be used in public arenas. The term 'yuppie flu' as a headline,even if it had inverted commas, introduces and reanimates the term and gives permission to accept and use the concept.

 

[jadam914]

Similar arguments have been made for MS, cancer (especially breast cancer), heart disease, gastric ulcers and so on. Its a long familiar story. Simon Wessely has made arguments that resemble this, about ME.

I have been trying to find solid references to those with no luck. It would be nice to have a concise list to use as ammunition.

 

[alex3619]

I have been trying to find solid references to those with no luck. It would be nice to have a concise list to use as ammunition.

There is an incomplete thread here that started to do that. Its from years ago. I don't have a link handy. It might be nice to start a project where a good number of us go looking.

 

[jadam914]

There is an incomplete thread here that started to do that. Its from years ago. I don't have a link handy. It might be nice to start a project where a good number of us go looking.

When you look at the history of psychiatry it has been an embarrassment to the medical community. So many physical conditions have been treated as mental illness. There are no real mental diseases as it doesn't fit the etymology, just illness. At it's worst it's pseudoscience that destroys lives still today. At it's best they do help truly ill people though it's mostly an art with little science.

 

[wastwater]

I wonder why a lot of ME folk are light aversive.
You would think with the low vitamin D levels usually seen that people would seek light.

 

[Old Bones]

I wonder why a lot of ME folk are light aversive.
You would think with the low vitamin D levels usually seen that people would seek light.

If only it were merely a matter of being light "averse", which means having "a strong dislike of or opposition to something". In that case, there might actually be an ME symptom CBT would be effective for! Unfortunately, our light "sensitivity" (called "photophobia", and nothing to do with "fear") is a symptom of many conditions such as infection or inflammation, or underlying virus. Regardless, avoiding bright sunlight or other harsh lighting situations is not only a normal response to light sensitivity, it is also medically recommended.

 

[Large Donner]

Speaking of psychobabble and AIDS, this paper is a good reminder of how much things can change:

The group-fantasy origins of AIDS.

Proposes a psychosocial origin of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which lies on the cusp between immunology, pathology, and psychology. It is argued that (a) AIDS is a typical example of epidemic hysteria, (b) the epidemic has at its core an unconscious group delusion that can be called the group fantasy of scapegoating, (c) the same fantasy complex underlies this scapegoating ritual as was found for leprosy during the Middle Ages, and (d) the proximal and distal causes of the tensions giving rise to the epidemic can be found in the group psychology of the US. A combination of unconscious group tensions brought about a subtle and sophisticated sacrificial witch hunt, in which the participants were the Moral Majority and an assortment of other conservative groups (as hunters) and the nation's drug addicts and homosexuals (as hunted). Both of these subgroups are acting out group sanctioned and group delegated roles, and these attacks have resulted in an epidemic of depression based mostly on shame.

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1985-14989-001

Unbelievable.

However when I first read it I thought it was one of those parodies written where you replace the phrase ME for another disease to show how ridiculous the paper is. That says something in itself that we would almost expect something like this to be written about ME though.

This is possibly the most stupid part......

The core sign of AIDS, the reduction of cell-mediated immunity, is one of the typical vegetative signs of depression.

....its also just shows that psychs dont even know what they mean when they use the word depression. Its almost like "if we say its depression cos that's what we say for everything then we find biomarkers its proof its depression rather than proof of biomarker for physical disease."

You can qualify anything as depression this way. I wonder if they think people in a coma can be showing typical signs of depression. They lay in bed all day, don't bath, don't show interest in previous activities. These are the typical signs of vegetative depression, right?

Primary depression with co morbid coma or the other way around, oh its so hard to tell!!! But must have depression though all the signs are there.

 

[Large Donner]

And the author died of AIDS later.

Are you sure he isn't just depressed?