Butterfly symbol for ME/CFS

Alas, the Japanese navy got there just ahead of us.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1324873512251584512

 

Yep, the FM butterfly is a reference to allodynia, which is very specific and clearly relevant. Apart from the cocoon/butterfly metaphor, I can’t find anything similarly specific for ME/CFS.

 

No, it’s a reference to allodynia (that the skin is so sensitive to touch that something even very light, like a butterfly landing on your arm, can cause pain).

 

Interesting! I didn’t know that. Interesting that even in that discussion, it wasn’t being considered for an historical reason. I remember that child’s drawing of the butterfly tied to the stone too. So powerful.

 

I started out on this quest sure this was going to be something so obvious that I had just failed to notice over the years. Glad I’m not the only one who has struggled to find the answer!

 

how about this?

 

All I can think of is that, at that time, it might have had something to do with the butterfly logo that was (and apparently still is) used by The Whittemore Peterson Institute, which was founded in 2005.

In 2009, a study by WPI researchers was published in the journal Science which seemingly linked ME/CFS with a novel retrovirus called XMRV, but the results could not be replicated and the study was ultimately retracted by the journal Science itself.


In general, the butterfly is a well known symbol of transformation, rebirth, hope and new perspectives - symbolized by the caterpillar's metamorphosis into a butterfly. I thinks it shows up fairly often as a symbol in both medical research and practice.

 

The use of the butterfly definitely predates the Whittemore Peterson Institute.

 

For anyone interested, someone sent me an article from an old Emerge journal. Emerge’s journal is also called Emerge (yes, confusing! The journal was named back when the org was called ME/CFS Victoria).

The 2013 journal included excerpts from a 1994 editorial from the journal that explains why the name Emerge was chosen for the journal/newsletter and why the butterfly was adopted by the journal (emphasis in the original).

The editorial is from 1994, and the 1985 “flashback” on the same page is a poem called Butterflies. I haven’t been able to find any earlier reference to the butterfly in relation to ME/CFS. Is it possible this was the first use of it? If so, it would explain why it seems more common here in Australia.