My doctor told me I was just tired: 13 years later and ME has taken over my life

Sally DohertySaturday 25 Aug 2018 2:06 pm
"
I wake late, drag myself out from under my duvet and stumble to the kitchen.

It would be a relief to have breakfast in bed but my husband works full time. He’s left me a bowl and a spoon on the side, and a sandwich awaits me in the fridge for lunch.

I eat in silence and then shuffle back to my bedroom on the ground floor.

Hungover? I wish.

This is not a one off; this is how I have felt every morning for the past 13 years.

I suffer from myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

That’s a fake illness, right?"

https://metro.co.uk/2018/08/25/my-d...-later-and-me-has-taken-over-my-life-7869463/

 

This is really good coverage isn't it? A good lesson in how to write for the internet too - short sentences, short paragraphs, giving a personal account of what it's like as simply as possible.

 

It is nicely written, but I wish so much that the 'What are the symptoms of ME?' box didn't perpetuate the myth that ME is tiredness: "The main symptom of CFS/ME is feeling extremely tired and generally unwell." They did add 'generally unwell', but that's very vague; feeling tired and generally unwell can apply to many healthy people. What they listed in the box as other conditions that folks with ME 'may' have in addition to being so tired, is what they really should have listed as the main symptoms.

I just get so 'tired' (OK, bad pun, sorry) of unhelpful misinformation still being continually put out in the media about this disease.

 

I wish people would learn to use the word "exhausted".