We don't know what causes CFS/MEe, and the 6 months thing has always seemed pretty arbitrary to me. I didn't notice any change in my condition at 6 months as I entered into 'real CFS' - it was just more of the same. Did anyone else feel the six months point was genuinely significant for the nature of their condition?
Esther, as Min stated, "he six month time period is to eliminate those with post viral fatigue, who should have recovered by then."
For a review, take a look at Dr. Vernon's the presentation of Dr. Gordon Broderick's work on adolescents who did and did not recover from EBV (slides 9 - 12; discussion begins at about 25:05 into the video presentation:
http://www.cfids.org/webinar/series2010.asp).
My earlier comments about my own 'remission' were intended to be cautionary. I was 90% better but there were clearly signs that I was not entirely healthy (but I really wanted to be, so much so that I ignored earlier advice by a doctor to be careful). I wasn't and I have paid dearly for it.
Kim, thanks for so eloquently and passionately expressing your concerns about reliance and excessive faith in unproven 'treatments.' I am all for anything that can lessen the overall metabolic load on an ailing body. I include massage, meditation, and prayer (for some, not at all different or distinct from prayer), scratching the dog, snuggling with my wife, regular naps, and good food, etc. as all being in the category 'adjunct support.' They are all good things that everyone (sick or well) would do well to at least consider. I think the hostility and ignorance of some in the traditional medical community has left many with CFS feeling as though there are few alternatives to elevating their adjunct practices to the level of treatment.
I have a good friend who was diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer. He refused traditional treatment because of a similar distrust and the last 12 months of his life were spent chasing all over the US and Mexico looking for healers and "natural" cures. There are no guarantees that traditional treatment could have saved his life (aggressive prostate cancer is notoriously difficult to cure) but the feeling that they weren't 'believing in health with a pure enough heart' was such a heavy guilt filled burden. Now his 45 year old widow is both furious and crushed. Three months before his death the cancer had metastasized to his spine and several vertebrae collapsed while they were in Mexico. Just getting him home to die was harrowing. Regardless of whether or not traditional treatment could have saved his life, he did not enjoy a good death. Nor was his wife left with a sense of peace. Some days I think that when my times comes, that's all that will really matters.
No one is ever really cured, all bodies deteriorate and eventually quit functioning. We are all (the 'sick' and the well) just putting off the inevitable and hoping to make the most of the time we have in the interim.
