Big news from Sweden: Fatigue diagnosis to be disappeared

A news article:

Utmattningssyndrom tas bort som diagnos
https://www.svd.se/a/vg118j/utmattningssyndrom-tas-bort-tror-det-blir-battre

 

I was diagnosed with ”utmattningssyndrom” (exhaustion/burn out syndrome) for 11 years, before finally coming to Bragée ME-center and receiving the correct diagnosis: ME/CFS.

I received treatment for burn out (CBT and GET) and only got worse. It was, and still is, a trauma for me to have lived with the wrong diagnosis for so long. Despite my attempts to convince doctors that my symtoms did not fit burn out, no one ever listened.

I have met many ME-patients who, like me, were incorrectly diagnosed with burn out, because their GPs either didn’t know about, or didn’t believe ME/CFS is a real disease.

I don’t know how the disappearance of the ”utmattningssyndrom” diagnosis will play out. We will have to wait and see.

Because I am severe and struggling so much at the moment, I choose to hope that it will be a good thing.

I hope it will force doctors to find the correct diagnosis for patients who present with fatigue, instead of labeling them as being burned out and ordering harmful treatments.

(I do wonder, however, what patients with bona fide burn out will be diagnosed with?!)

 

This is extremely dangerous. It’s what leads to lives being destroyed.

 

It's only a bad thing if they do worse things instead. Which they will. That's been the only constant over the last few decades: however bad things are, you can always count on proponents of this ideology to make everything worse. It never fails. The only times things improve slightly is when their stuff is pushed back a little. But their fantasy models are political, and fiscally, very desirable, so things are pretty much guaranteed to be worse.

For sure the concept is bogus, and in itself it should be a good thing. But since we know they will do worse things with this change, ah well.

It'd be funny if the consequences weren't so tragic, but the way it's defined rather explicitly and yet being applied in such a generic way that:

This is similar to how no system of government can withstand corruption from the top. It's impossible to create a system that will not fall to rot and corruption from corrupt leaders, the only way to avoid this is to not elect corrupt people. Which is impossible. It's written to be about stress, so that when no such stress is present but a clinician is compelled to make the diagnosis, they will simply assert it on their own. It supports itself, this ideology is textbook bootstrapping: the impossible fact of elevating oneself by pulling on our own bootstraps.

It's all so very telling that all those concepts have proven to be a massive failure with Long Covid, and the almost universal response has been to make things worse. There is never any line they won't cross, including encouraging mass assisted suicide in people who are only disabled because or government policies supported by the medical profession. These institutions are disgustingly perverse and immoral.

What this is is basically the farmers and the butchers negotiating how they will handle the pigs, who are obviously not involved in any such discussion, and aren't meant to be.

 

And it has been proven again and again and again and again that they want this. All of this is on purpose, they simply don't care about the consequences because they themselves never face any. Only we do, and they are fine with that. We have been classified as sub-humans with everything it involves.

 

I have written about the problematic issue of the media highlighting Lindsäter as an expert when she is actually a lobbyist with a vested interest in having exhaustion disorder removed as a diagnosis.

Google translated blogpost
https://mitteremitage-wordpress-com..._sl=sv&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=sv&_x_tr_pto=wapp

 

Thank you so much! Definitely worth a read, everyone

 

I just want to clarify my current stance on this:

I agree with them that ‘burnout’ is an unnecessary diagnosis. It’s broad, vague and just another way to dismiss patients.

But I do not, in any way, agree with their reasoning about e.g. unhelpful beliefs and the proposed treatments. They are completely wrong and incredibly harmful.

Because we don’t have a good understanding of the causes of fatigue to offer up as an alternative, I believe that we have to focus on the flaws of their reasoning and their conflicts of interest. That’s an uphill battle, but I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere by trying to defend the ‘burnout’ diagnosis.

PS. If it’s wrong to call it ‘burnout’, please tell me. I find it easier to use because other nationalities understand the meaning as opposed to ‘exhaustion/fatigue syndrome’.

 

I agree. Although I see the BPS forces weighing in on political decisions that at present in many countries are going in very much the wrong direction I also see all sorts of inconsistencies building up in the debate. As Richard points out the same people who have said there is no physical disease it is all in the mind are now saying that there is too much diagnosing of all in the mind and people are just ... (fill in as preferred). If there is nobody being diagnosed with anything that is bad for business if you believe your calling is treating people with (fill in as preferred).

I think all of this may fall apart. And maybe the science will move forward. In the meantime if fewer people are sent to rehab centres for stress-induced exhaustion syndrome it may be no bad thing.

 

News article + audio segment (1 min, in Swedish).

Därför försvinner utmattningssyndrom som diagnos
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/darfor-forsvinner-utmattningssyndrom-som-diagnos

 

Marie Åsberg, 86: Därför har jag vigt livet åt att bekämpa utmattningssyndrom
https://vision.se/tidningenvision/a...vigt-livet-at-att-bekampa-utmattningssyndrom/

Google Translate, English ("Marie Åsberg, 86: This is why I have dedicated my life to fighting exhaustion disorder")

Author Hedvig Söderlund comments on this in an Instagram post, and to me this is exactly what it is about: the care and support that has helped so many get their life back and return to work, is now suddenly discontinued because the people in power have decided that it's costing too much money.

 

Why not ghosts? Good grief.

 

ME and post-covid are mentioned and framed as "cultural illnesses" in this one.

Also, Petra Widerkrantz is infamous for having been very influential in creating new BPS-leaning regional clinical guidelines for ME in Skåne and more.

Experterna oeniga när diagnos för utmattning slopas
https://www.sydsvenskan.se/2025-03-26/experterna-oeniga-nar-diagnos-for-utmattning-slopas/

 

Därför slopas diagnosen utmattningssyndrom – 7 frågor och svar
https://www.hd.se/2025-03-26/darfor-slopas-diagnosen-utmattningssyndrom-7-fragor-och-svar/

 

That’s bad..

 

Damn this is a mess. I get the same vibes from observing those 'experts' at work as any of those "kitchen nightmares" shows would, if I ever watched one. They're struggling with making water boil and how to toast bread without starting a fire.

Our lives are in these people's hands? I'm sorry but this is a completely unacceptable status quo. Our lives aren't ruined mainly by illness, they are ruined by staggering levels of incompetence and institutional dysfunction.

 

But. They're literally the ones rejecting this international standard, sulking and stomping their feet about how it's the international standard that should bow to them.

WTF? You can't tell me that a bunch of teenagers doing the same job would do significantly worse here, it's just not realistic. They are so completely out of their depth that they don't notice just how out of their depth they are. It's like they're walking around in circles and insisting that they're on the right path because they keep regularly seeing the same trees as they loop around.

 

Opinion piece today in one of the biggest Swedish newspapers/websites. It's currently at the top of the "most read" page. (Mentions neurasthenia and cultural illnesses, but not ME.)

Diagnosen försvinner – men alla utmattade då?
https://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/a/KM7GR4/fanny-nilsson-om-utmattningssyndrom

There's an interesting discussion happening on the writer's Bluesky page:
https://bsky.app/profile/fnyosv.bsky.social/post/3lllbwirczc2i

 

I’m a bit foggy at the moment, but the english translation of that opinion piece reads to me like a whole bunch of nothing. I really don’t get what her point is?

 

The main thing I'm left with after reading, are the many hints to the conceptual model suggesting that some illnesses and diseases aren't really medical issues at all but just "difficult but normal life experiences" that everyone goes though. Implying that sick leave and medical treatments isn't what is needed, but for people to suck it up, keep on pushing through and find other ways to find meaning in their lives, other things to identify themselves with than a diagnosis or a set of symptoms.

But that's just my personal impression. Not saying that's the message the writer is trying to get across. But it's a very common theme nowadays here in Sweden, it seems.