News from Germany

Sean said:
Just to be clear, this means that patients who reject the psychologisation of ME/CFS don't have any stigma toward mental illness?
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It’s hard to say what is meant exactly.
Stigmatization of addicts by medical professionals is a focus of Professor Schomerus’ research.
Stigmatization also commonly pops up in his LC papers, such as:
“Have you considered that it could be burnout?”—psychologization & stigmatization of self-reported LC or…vaccination syndrome,2025, Büchner, Schomerus
 
From Bluesky:

Mirja Nicolas
Building a care network for a psychologized illness (Long COVID), only to go on psychologizing desperate families and severely ill children. And everyone thinks the children are receiving specialized care. That’s roughly how I imagine structural malice.

[OCR of screenshot]:
Our local PEDNET unfortunately psychologizes too. No meds. Too much school. Sometimes activation, too. The PEDNET clinics in Kreischa and Garmisch have unfortunately also worsened children’s condition.​

Every time I read these reports, I really want to cry with rage. Severely ill children are so damn vulnerable, and adults with PhDs exploit that vulnerability to push their psychosomatic ideology. Then, after work, they complain about their poor working conditions.
​
 
Chandelier said:
www.spiegel.de

ME/CFS bei Kindern: Wie schwer die Krankheit das Leben verändert

Annabelle kann ihren Kopf nicht heben, verträgt kein Licht und wird künstlich ernährt. Ihre Schwester Mathilda wacht nachts vor Schmerzen auf. Die Mutter pflegt beide rund um die Uhr. Hat die Familie noch Hoffnung auf Heilung?
www.spiegel.de www.spiegel.de
13-min video on the main page of DER SPIEGEL about 11-year old Annabelle:

“It makes me sad that I’m basically dead.”​


Annabelle can’t lift her head, can’t tolerate light, and receives artificial nutrition. Her sister Mathilda wakes up at night in pain. Their mother cares for both of them around the clock. Does the family still have hope for a cure?​
​

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DER SPIEGEL is featuring this video documentary as their top story since Saturday evening.
It's about the 11-year old Annabelle and her little sister Mathilda

Some quotes:
Annabelle was a competitive gymnast.
She loved being active.
Until she and her family caught COVID for the
second time in 2023.
A week after her parents had recovered,
Annabelle started experiencing pain.
It started in her legs, and from then on, things went downhill.
All that's left are snapshots from a time
before the illness.
Click to expand...

The eleven-year-old now has to be fed artificially,
so her body gets enough nutrients.
Annabelle's mother has learned to give her daughter
an infusion every day in the dark.
Click to expand...

The first few times, when it was about death,
when Annabelle thought she was dying because of
the severe symptoms,
that was very hard for me.
But by now, it's become part of
everyday life.
Death keeps coming up.
Either: This time it's even worse
than usual; I think I'm really going to die this time.
Or: My life
just isn't worth living anymore,
I want to die.
And also that it's unfair that people
over 18 can decide for themselves whether they want
to go on living like this, but children can't.
Children don't have that right.
Click to expand...

A clinician about the lack of medical support for severe pwME:
It's a tragedy.
Click to expand...

Here's the direct video URL and attached are the machine translated subtitles.
subtitles_plain.txt is the human readable form and subtitles.srt.txt is for if you know how to load a subtitles file in your video player.
 

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