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The issue of when to call it a day on trying alternative treatments is a very personal one and is often a financial decision as well unfortunately. I saw a homeopath for many years mainly because I believed in its philosophy and in the very deepseated beliefs of the particular lady that if I could express my emotions I would become well again (she, like many others, felt that unexpressed emotions manifested in physical symptoms). Eventually finances became a problem and I stopped seeing her. Some time later I had a lot of counselling/therapy to deal with emotional stuff and am now functioning very well on the whole emotionally - the only depression I experience is linked to an increase in symptoms/relapse. But needless to say I remain physically unwell.
It's so difficult to get a grasp on what, if any, treatments, are generally good for m.e without having a definitive test and understanding of what m.e really is. In the UK at least, it seems to be the case that anyone with unexplained fatigue is put under the m.e/cfs umbrella once more obvious conditions have been ruled out, but that doesn't mean that everyone has the same thing. Indeed fatigue without PEM or other neuro/immune symptoms can have many different causes.
And even among people with the same sort of m.e symptoms, the cause of them as well as the individual makeup of the person may result in certain treatments being helpful or absolutely useless. But it's still obviously good to hear about what has worked for people. In fact its essential, it gives us hope. But as I said, in terms of how much hope, energy, money etc one can put into a particular treatment or therapy is a very individual decision and no one should be judged for calling it a day on one treatment or just alternative treatments in general. I've yet to meet anyone who is seriously ill and wants to remain so; always they will try whatever they can, but sometimes the disappointment gets too much.
It's so difficult to get a grasp on what, if any, treatments, are generally good for m.e without having a definitive test and understanding of what m.e really is. In the UK at least, it seems to be the case that anyone with unexplained fatigue is put under the m.e/cfs umbrella once more obvious conditions have been ruled out, but that doesn't mean that everyone has the same thing. Indeed fatigue without PEM or other neuro/immune symptoms can have many different causes.
And even among people with the same sort of m.e symptoms, the cause of them as well as the individual makeup of the person may result in certain treatments being helpful or absolutely useless. But it's still obviously good to hear about what has worked for people. In fact its essential, it gives us hope. But as I said, in terms of how much hope, energy, money etc one can put into a particular treatment or therapy is a very individual decision and no one should be judged for calling it a day on one treatment or just alternative treatments in general. I've yet to meet anyone who is seriously ill and wants to remain so; always they will try whatever they can, but sometimes the disappointment gets too much.
