ME mentioned in Sunday Times (UK) article about BBC presenter Kirsty Young's fibromyalgia

[Inara]

Because if there's one thing overachievers are known for, it's definitely failing to achieve much because they end up believing themselves sick.

Galactic brain-sized intellect right there.

That's the unconscious. Your conscious you wants to be successful, your unconcious you wants something else and therefore it makes you sick. You know. (irony)

 

[Invisible Woman]

I wonder what the difference is? Between the attributions of PwMEs and PwFM? Different experience of onset, that makes it seem to the PwFM that their psyche may have been to blame? Or is FM more accepted than ME, so people haven't learned to become as wary of psychological generalisations?

Unfortunately, there are ME patients who also embrace the psychological, post traumatic, repressed memory schtick.

Now, please don't think I am mocking those who have suffered past traumas here. Not at all.

When I first "met" many of you guys, it was after my total disgust at a thread on one of the ME charities Facebook pages. I won't say which one 'cause I can't remember for sure.

Someone basically started with, why can't people understand the power of the psyche, the powerful effects of past childhood trauma etc., etc. Even if you couldn't remember the actual event etc., etc...

Next thing people are almost competing to see who is the most traumatised and has the longest list of diagnosis. They were revelling in it.

Don't get me wrong - if someone has been the victim of a trauma there should be no blame or shame attached. But this was victimhood as a badge of honour. Like it conferred a special status.

These guys can be very vocal too and attempts to discuss or pose an alternative view is immediately jumped on as further abuse of an unfortunate victim.

 

[Snowdrop]

Yes, it's never stops being amazing how we humans can have such a strong attachment to the psyche creating our illness.
I know some of the reasons even. There is no evidence against any of these explanations. This seems to make them quite compelling even as the opposite is true (no evidence for them but that is not at all interesting as a reason to not believe).

Also, it puts us in the centre of our own story. It is a very human thing to want to 'close the circle' on something when there is a great deal of tension. Rather than leaving our mind open and free to continue to carry on examining a host of possibilities we essentially end the tension by creating a 'reason' for our illness. It is now capable of being known, explainable, and can now be 'dealt with'.

SO on the other hand, if it remains unexplained, there is continued uncertainty, therefore tension that. We are not at the centre of the story (our various traumas) but have been randomly attacked by a biological invader of unknown origin that is not amenable to our own efforts to heal. As we've all been there, this is quite a bitter pill to swallow.

Couple this with a huge and powerful narrative that has seeped in to the popular accepted dogma of how our mind works on us while we're not paying attention and it becomes almost a default position until such time as we allow ourselves to be more critical while also being willing to 'hold off' closing down the inquiry.

 

[Trish]

I think that if a patient is suffering very disabling physical symptoms and their doctors and therapists are telling them there is nothing wrong with them physically, it is perfectly understandable that they would seek an explanation in a major trauma. Especially if the therapist is egging them on to dig through their past to find one. It externalises the cause and removes the self-blame.

If you are told there is no physical cause, and you have lived a carefree and trouble free life, that only leaves some personal weakness to hang the blame on which is much more upsetting.

The fact that the doctor and therapist are wrong, and there actually is a physical/biological cause may be kept hidden from the patient, so all they have to cling to to avoid self blame is past trauma.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

If you are told there is no physical cause, and you have lived a carefree and trouble free life, that only leaves some personal weakness to hang the blame on which is much more upsetting.

It just struck me that it would be interesting to know how psychotherapists get on in a culture that believes in fate. I do not want anything I say to be taken judgmentally but what about those who believe that everything is the will of Allah? Or those who drive far too fast with a crucifix hanging from the rearview mirror?

If everything is foretold, the die is cast and fate is in charge then childhood trauma has nothing to do with it. The ME was always going to be. In such a culture do people go to psychotherapists to find out why they feel ill? Would they take them seriously if they suggested that unhelpful beliefs (rather than Allah) were the ongoing problem. I wonder if anyone familiar with such cultures has any thoughts?

I might add that I am a fatalist but I think that fate works through things like viruses and antibodies.

 

[Snowdrop]

It externalises the cause and removes the self-blame.

I'm not sure I agree with this part of the statement though. It doesn't really change the overall point you make but while it does externalize the agency I think that people probably still tend to think that maybe they could have done something differently at the time to effect a different outcome and that there is guilt about it. This provides the therapist with enough to create a space for real therapy while ignoring the fact that the illness has nothing to do with it and maintaining the belief.

 

[Michelle]

I do not want anything I say to be taken judgmentally but what about those who believe that everything is the will of Allah?

Before ME made it impossible, I was once an aspiring academic specialising in the Middle East. While I think someone Muslim would better speak to this than me (a Christian with European ancestry), my first thought on reading this was that, at least in the Arab world, they wouldn't be going to a psycho-therapist (with some exception). That said, my Arabic professor once explained that in Arab culture illness is often seen as punishment from God or that, at least on some level, the person did something that invited illness. Thus it is not acceptable to speak openly about cancer, for instance, because just talking about it could invite getting cancer yourself.*

Which, frankly, isn't that different at its core than the BPS explanation. Dressed up in different language, perhaps. But kinda the same thing.

I might add that I am a fatalist but I think that fate works through things like viruses and antibodies.

Yeah, the longer I'm sick, the more of a fatalist I've become too. I've had too much time now to think about how it might have all been different and realized it probably wasn't ever going to be. I gave up my Calvinism a long time ago, but have lately started to wonder if John Calvin was on to something with the whole predestination thing. ;-)

*A devout Muslim, however, could also explain illness in similar terms to, say, a Catholic, in that illness is a test of one's faith. Can you remain faithful to God through your suffering? Cultural beliefs and religious beliefs are not always congruent.

 

[Inara]

That said, my Arabic professor once explained that in Arab culture illness is often seen as punishment from God or that, at least on some level, the person did something that invited illness.

At least parts of Judaism (there seem to be several "schools") say illness is a punishment by God. At the same time, they say Jews have the duty to help the sick. (Interesting how Job's story is ignored here.)

There are Christian groups (e.g. Baptists) that believe if God loves you (i.e. you obeyed His laws) you are successful (so, success will be a proof that God loves you), and if you are unsuccessful (this includes sickness) this means that person did something God didn't like. Sickness then is God's try to bring you back to the "righteous path". This may go back to Calvin's predestination teaching that says if someone is successful he is chosen by God (and his name is written in the book of life). Only a restricted number of people can be chosen.

People often say in Buddhism, bad kharma is the cause of bad things in life (e.g. sickness), but I read something Buddha taught about sickness where he listed several (maybe 9?) different causes of sickness, and kharma was only a small fraction there.

Today, there seem to be people who believe sickness can be the result of traumas of ancestors (already dead), and that if you heal that trauma, you will be healed. This is explained as follows: The cells "save" the trauma, and then the cells are inherited. Other people use "matrix" instead of cells.

Edit: Highly interesting post @Michelle, thanks!