This MUS stuff makes my blood boil.
Basically, it's back to blaming the patient simply because the medical profession can't work out what's going on biochemically.
They don't know what's wrong with patients like us, and since the God Complex rules, especially in the upper echelons of medical power, it therefore must be our fault.
I've just seen this:
http://www.priorygroup.com/blog/priory-bitesize/medically-unexplained-symptoms
It includes such gems as -
- "In IBS, normal gut sensation is perceived as abnormal, this leads to distress, psychological distress affects the gut via the ENS leading to more symptoms and worsening mood via vagal feedback" - How the hell do you "perceive" raging gut cramps and violent diarrhoea as "normal" ?
- "Selective attention lowers the threshold of symptom detection and lack of explanation increases anxiety, symptoms and symptom focus" - So trying to understand how to make ourselves well is a bad thing?? If the medical profession could help us, or had been able to help us when we all first asked for help, then none of us would still be looking for answers ourselves! This is saying we make ourselves ill through monitoring our symptoms, aka hypochondria.
- "Consider a psychiatric assessment where no cause has been found and advice is needed about medication" - so if they, through ignorance or ineptitude can't put a recognised disease label on our symptoms, then obviously we're all just nut-jobs.
There's even a quote listed as being from a patient advocating the "get off your butt" therapy.
They say that if we wait until we feel 100% better before getting out of bed, then none of us would get out of bed.
Well, I don't know ANYONE with a chronic illness who does that, do you? Chronic illness isn't like waiting to get over a bout of the 'flu. We all push ourselves because we all want to be "normal". We all get out of bed and try to do even small things to help us feel more "normal" Personally, I'm disproprtionately delighted if I manage to clean the loo.
Therefore, or so their distorted reasoning goes, we should all force ourselves out of bed regardless of how ill we "think" we are, and regardless of how much MORE ill that makes us. - Oh, wait! We're just "perceiving"that it makes us worse, it doesn't
really. Silly me. If only I'd known that before.
Or maybe my brain is making up the physical pain from neuropathy and muscles, the sweats that follow the pain, the all-over shaking, the dizziness, the nausea, the loss of balance and falling over, the throwing up, the migraines and the absolute exhaustion that follows most any normal thing I push myself to do?
It's bad enough having a rheumatologist (for my co-morbid fibromyalgia) who insists that I'm not really in any pain, it's *just* my brain "misinterpreting pain signals".
Makes me want to slap his face just so I can chirp brightly, "Don't worry! That doesn't
really hurt! It's just your brain misinterpreting pain signals!" everytime he says it.
Patronising, clueless, ignorant, smug, self-serving morons.