The Psychiatric view of ME/CFS. What is it?

[Enid]

Orla you started this thread - I'm an eleven yearer and know very well this disease has nothing to do with psychiatry or psychology - ditch the lot - unable as they are to see the wood from the trees.

 

[Leopardtail]

We suffer from Abnormal illness beliefs

They think we have a problem with our perception or thinking. What is wrong with us is that we misinterpret normal bodily sensations as evidence of disease. We think we have symptoms of a physical illness. So we have an abnormal view that we are physically sick (they call this an "abnormal illness belief"). These abnormal beliefs lead us to abnormal/unhelpful behaviours (more of that later).

The label of CFS...avoids the misleading connotations of 'pseudo-disease' diagnoses such as chronic Epstein-Barr virus infection or ME

Chronic fatigue syndrome and occupational health A Mountstephen and M Sharpe, Occup Med 1997:47:4:217-227 http://occmed.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/4/217

"Im going to talk not about an illness, but about an idea" I will argue that ME is simply a belief, the belief that one has an illness called ME., The Victorians lived in an age of fatigue, we now live in the ME generation "there is another condition with which ME might easily be confused... it is hysteria."

people redefining themselves in terms of illness..and these views matter they affect outcome, look at these studies of prognosis..hence our virus doctor exists not to hold out hope of cure - but to give legitimacy to distress

from Simon Wessely's talk entitled Microbes, Mental Ilness, The Media and ME: The Construction of disease, at the Eliot Slater Memorial Lecture, which you can read here http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/wessely_speech_120594.htm

[Note: Psychiatrist Eliot Slater criticised the diagnois of Hysteria very strongly, and helped to put the diagnosis out of favour in the 1960s. He wrote in the BMJ in 1965: The malady of the wandering womb began as a myth, and as a myth it yet survives. But, like all unwarranted beliefs which still attract credence, it is dangerous. The diagnosis of hysteria is a disguise for ignorance and a fertile source of clinical error. It is, in fact, not only a delusion but also a snare. Quoted in http://www.richardwebster.net/freudandhysteria.html]

I refused to accept I was ill and for decades insisted on telling myself "I am healthy and just need to eat well and excrcise" with disastrous results. This is not just pseudo-science, it is evidentially untrue once personality of many patients is expertly assessed.

 

[concepcion]

So sad that with all the evidence based research going on, which not only PROVES that this illness is real but is slowly but surely showing HOW it impacts many systems in the body, that this bogus, ignorant and malicious view is still being discussed. If stress can impact ME, exposure to these toxic views needs to end. These charlatan psychiatrists should no longer be given a voice in medical and scientific arenas. Instead they should be relegated to circles where superstition and animal sacrifices are valued.

 

[Leopardtail]

So sad that with all the evidence based research going on, which not only PROVES that this illness is real but is slowly but surely showing HOW it impacts many systems in the body, that this bogus, ignorant and malicious view is still being discussed. If stress can impact ME, exposure to these toxic views needs to end. These charlatan psychiatrists should no longer be given a voice in medical and scientific arenas. Instead they should be relegated to circles where superstition and animal sacrifices are valued.

They seem to prefer human sacrifice 'en Mass'

 

[Jeckylberry]

@Orla, this is gold! I followed @Dolphin's interesting link and came across this. Even though it was written some time ago, it is such a useful resource! thanks!