I find it very weird particularly the bottom paragraph of the reviewer.
Some people do have severe mental health conditions where irrational fears become completely disabling. I don't think anyone is disputing that, nor are they questioning the reality of living with such a condition or the level of disability or distress those thoughts and fears can cause them. These people do need the help of a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and /or psychiatric medication.
But the idea that we have a fear of activity or exercise and that disables us is wrong. Not because we don't want to be labelled as having irrational fears or a mental health condition but pure and simply because it is wrong.
You can not say a small number of people are so severely disabled by their fears means therefore that any disability is a result of irrational fears. This is a truly nonsensical approach surely.
My own experience of this illness is that in the very early stages there were a lot of fears and anxiety because I did not know what was wrong, medical professionals did not know what was wrong and it was so severe in how it affected me that it felt something must be seriously wrong.
In my experience, as the years have gone by, I don't have fears around my illness. I used to fear not being able to work, losing my friends, my career, myself, my former life, these fears are gone now as the losses have already happened, sadness yes but fear no.
I do not have a fear of doing exercise and activity just a very pragmatic, realistic, common sense attitude that if I do this today it has this effect, therefore if I want to do this or manage that tomorrow or later in the week I need to limit or not do this activity or I will put myself out of action for 2 days. I avoid making myself more unwell, in the way someone with a peanut allergy avoids eating peanuts or someone with lung disease chooses to stop smoking, they don't want to make themselves worse, they want to give themselves every chance to improve. I make a rational informed choice not to do aerobic activity or activity beyond my limits, not fear based at all, common sense given what we know of research and our own bodies and this illness.
I personally am getting very tired of this continual play by Wessely and co to spin our attitude as being anti-psychiatry and hostile and judgemental to those suffering from mental health conditions, I find this ugly and distasteful.
Having PTSD I have no problem in accepting I have difficulties with my emotional, psychological health, I have had therapy of various kinds and take medication to manage it. If I can accept this diagnosis, it wouldn't really make sense that I refuse to believe ME is psychologically based disorder.... except because it is not and that is why I resist this interpretation, because it is pure and simply wrong.
I have not come across one person on this forum or within the ME community that has EVER treated me differently, unkindly or formed judgements about me because of my mental health condition. Quite the opposite, and far less than mainstream society. Perhaps because ME patients suffer themselves they are generally more acutely attuned to the suffering of others, in the same way, that they have been on the receiving end of prejudice they are more aware not to inflict it on others.
This idea of Wessley and co that they seem intent to keep repeating until it sticks, that ME patients have a problem with accepting a mental health diagnosis because they have a prejudice against people with mental health problems. Along with the desire ( Wessely and co) to portray themselves as the heroes and protectors of mental health patients ( and those ME sufferers prepared to submit and accept the psychological nature of their ME) and therefore the compassionate understanding ones who need to stand up for people with mental health conditions against the prejudice of ME suffers, quite frankly makes me sick and repulses me.