May 12 is, unintentionally, the International Day of M.E. UNawareness. Or, the International Day of Conflating Myalgic Encephalomyelitis* with 8 other diseases so people understand them all less.
May 12 (signified by the blue ribbon) is not a day for M.E. awareness. It is a day when the very damaging conflation of the primarily neurological and secondarily cardiac/cardiovascular illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis with various fatiguing and catch-all/ help-none diagnoses is exacerbated. This undermines the cause of advocating for M.E. to be treated as the well studied, distinct disease that it is (not at all like 'CFS' or FMS). It is a *terrible* day for trying to help those with M.E.
In light of this, the late HFME founder,
Jodi Bassett Hfme, designed some grey ribbons for
#ME. The blue 'ME/CFS' awareness ribbon is not part of M.E. advocacy.
M.E. is NOT 'CFS' nor 'ME/CFS', CFIDS, SEID etc. May 12 is NOT a day for
#MEawareness! This is not an
#MEAwarenessMonth!
*WHO ICD-10 G93.3
http://www.hfme.org/whatisme.htm