M.E Physical or psychological?

longtermlurker_2

I don't have m.e but I was looking at my mortgage insurance earlier and, because I had depression before we took it out there is a clause that says psychological illnesses such as m.e are not covered.:eek:

laury_2

There are some people that are still stuck in the past and think that ME/CFS is just a psychological disorder and people just need to ‘snap out of it’, a bit like people’s archaic attitude towards depression. It is a bit of both, physical and psychological, but then so is every illness; you can't have a physical disability, physical pain or other physical symptoms without having some psychological issues.

Some specialists believe it is more psychological than physical, and others believe it is more physical than psychological, but either way it is a very real illness.

I don’t think the NHS would have set up rehabilitation centres for the condition if it could be handled with a bit of psychotherapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is part of the rehabilitation process but only in as far as it helps the person accept the condition and learn pacing procedures to deal with the symptoms.

Invasion

ME is recognised by the WHO as an organic neurological disease. With most chronic illnesses there will be people within that group who are depressed, but that's an effect not a cause for the most part.

A big problem in the UK is that the criteria we use for diagnosing ME could just as easily be used for depression, there is no mention of post-exertional malaise- one of the key elements of ME- in the criteria that we use, and therefore studies aren't accurate as often people are diagnosed with ME, when they actually have depression.

The two illnesses are SO SO different, but the current criteria we use make them out to be almost exactly the same.

I don't even think it's legal for them to say that if you have ME (which is now widely accepted, and classified as physiological, not psychological) it's not covered as it's not a mental health condition.

SingleSue

I think ME still suffers from the original thinking of it...well to the lay person anyway. I remember when it was starting to be diagnosed and was called yuppy flu and the throw away comments about it being more about lazyness in the upper classes than a real illness.

Because of that, there will still be those who will think of it in the same way and not really understand the debillitating nature of it..I know for certain my ex mother in law would be like that, and so would be dismissive of anyone who does suffer from ME.

I only had the general tiredness and eekiness after glandular fever for a few months but that was enough for me to not be dismissive about ME...it was awful.

ERICS_MUM

My depression was diagnosed because I had physical symptoms over a few months with no obvious associated illness. My anti-depressants act by supplementing and/or stimulating chemicals in my brain that don't work properly on their own. They affect mood among other symptoms - the same part of the brain as epilepsy. Actually one of my meds is also prescribed for epilepsy.

I defy anyone to tell me that depression is purely a mental illness.

I don't suffer with ME but I should imagine the same applies.


Linda xx

PS I now have diabetes - my pills supplement/trigger chemicals in my body that don't work properly on their own, just like my anti-depressants do.

MrsManda

There are many major misunderstandings about M.E. as there is no obvious cause and effect. But then there are major misunderstandings about the terms psychological and mental illness. Mental and psychological illness is often seen as being 'all in mind' when what it really means is that it is rooted in the brain. They are separated from 'physiological' illnesses such as epilepsy because of their symptoms rather than their pathology. Yet whereas you rarely hear 'oh it's just epilepsy', or 'it's just Parkinson's disease' you often hear people remarking that it's 'just depression' as if in order to be a proper illness rather than just sloppy thinking, there has to be an obvious physical manifestation or cause.
There's no such thing as a 'purely mental illness' just like there are very few purely physical illnesses but even those suffering from mental illness often feel they have to justify themselves and argue that it's not purely mental (electrical/chemical in the brain), that there has to be something physical wrong in order to divert images of asylums, which is ridiculous when these days we know that epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, depression, schizophrenia etc... are not caused by demons but by deviations of chemical and electrical signalling, blood flow and a whole host of other things.

skiTTish

I think ME as with Fibromyalgia , to name a couple ,they are diagnosed by elimination .When they cannot find anything else then it must be that .
In my mind I always think the diagnosis of ME is just a cop out and it could be any number of different conditions in different people but because the medical profession cannot diagnose it they just use a blanket diagnosis of ME .