NHS England web pages on ME/CFS updated 29th October 2021 (NICE publication date)

Seeing the word tiredness in association with this condition makes me very angry but I suspect the reason this word is used is because the NHS website in general (not just the ME/CFS entry) is written in childlike language. Other NHS disease descriptions also use trivialising language like "sore tummy" or "feeling sick (nausea)" as though they're aiming at 1st grade reading level. I'm not sure why this is. American websites use plain English without coming across as being written by an idiot.

 

Whilst initially tempted by this, reading the rest of it makes that a nonsense

This would be worded very differently surely if all genuinely had to be at the same lowest common denominator. ANd if it isn't all on the same lowest common denominator then I don't think the excuse for inaccuracy holds for the first bit.

And the unevidenced nonsense on the bit that isn't even worded 'for the audience' certainly is unjustifiable?

 

Potentially.

But another fundamental issue is that those who do end up e.g. not being able to pace are normally having to do so due to other people or being in a situation where commitments can't be changed e.g. needing to earn money.

It sounds great in theory for someone to say 'tackle the person suffering the consequences' but many of those people don't lack assertiveness, or even power or words to do it - they are stuck there because the old paradigm hasn't been followed up with the clear instruction that clinics must now 'make good' on the damage done by misinformation. ie be telling friends, family and employers how damaging or problematic x, y, z is.

And that the days of laughing at people when they say that, snarking or just ignoring them are not just gone but that is basically abuse.

Otherwise isn't it just being like telling someone in a relationship where 'my husband thinks/tells me I'm mad' is happening , and the strategies being taught are 'just ignore it' or 'laugh at it' which might work when someone isn't disabled but doesn't fix them assuming they can do all the housework/a full time job etc.

And what good is it for the mad person to say 'well I'm just not going to do it' when they look behind them, as any seriously ill person would, and there isn't even an HCP whistling - they just put up the old text years ago that incited this, never took it down and then disappeared for the clean-up.

And last line is rather the irony there isn't it. But my point is that, often with the hand of those individuals involved, a situation has been created that no amount of assertiveness or training in the individual can undo. Nevermind one who is debilitated. And a debilitated person is less able to 'just leave it' or 'fight for what is right in a divorce' or 'sell their worth to get adjustments in their role' or move to a different job 10 miles away, having interviewed in 5 different places (using their weekends and annual leave)

So for a lot of people it is selling fiction. Except for the few who it is only them putting pressure on themselves 'with no external cause'. It's amazing what a few 'cmmon mate up your game and give her a hand' can do when said by multiple friends and relatives to make someone who is around an ill person feel like they've got the wrong end of the stick too.

But I have a feeling that the way NHS is currently trying to bill CBT as 'treatment and management only involves the patient' directly undermines that. It isn't like they are billing it to others reading it as 'patients are encouraged to do CBT to become more assertive and robust in cutting down their exertion and saying no to others, as reducing their exertion is so important'. It says 'change behaviours'. And I suspect it is deliberate (even if they don't notice it) for a number of reasons

 

The ME association today Dr Charles Shepherd:

Edited. They have had since October 2021.

 

Just read the Daily Mail article on the NIH study latest results. Proof chronic fatigue syndrome IS real: Researchers probing poorly-understood illness find subtle differences in brains and immune systems of patients for the first time | Daily Mail Online

The description was as follows of the illness, which seems as simple English as the NHS website stuff does. Food for thought?#

"Symptoms of CFS vary per patient and over time.

The most common include an extreme physical and mental tiredness that doesn't go away with rest as well as problems sleeping and with thinking, memory and concentration.

Other symptoms include muscle or joint pain, a sore throat, headaches, flu-like symptoms, dizziness and nausea as well as a fast or irregular heartbeat.

At its mildest, CFS sufferers can perform everyday activities with difficulty but may have to give up hobbies and social activities to rest.

The most severe CFS patients are essentially bed-bound and may full-time care unable to feed or wash themselves or even go to the toilet unassisted.

One of the greatest challenges with CFS is getting a diagnosis due to a lack of a tests that can show a patient has it.

With no such test currently available, patients are forced to undergo diagnosis by process of elimination, with medics progressively ruling out other conditions until CFS is the only one remaining.

There is currently no cure for CFS. Treatment instead revolves around therapy, lifestyle changes and the use of some medications to alleviate symptoms."

 

Apart from the use of CFS, I think it's rather good. I'd change "extreme physical and mental tiredness" to "mental and physical exhaustion" and "treatment" to "management", but I could live with the rest.

(The Daily Mail ties me up in knots. I'm often infuriated by the political stances they take, yet their writing—and sometimes their whole journalistic approach to a particular topic—is often better than I see elsewhere. )

 

Not bad, needs to convey PEM & risk of harm at any exertion. It was probably written in less than five minutes too.