New Zealand: Dr Vallings' view on the personality type of people with ME

I laughed darkly at that @Lidia

So rough to have it at 5, & to be the parent of a 5yr old sufferer

 

I have argued elsewhere that mild depression and anxiety in someone with ME is probably normal, and in both cases it can be adaptive and assist the person. For example, if you are anxious and realise that something might cause a crash, such as going to a big event, then you might choose to stay home. Crash averted.

 

Also, they can be actual symptoms of the illness itself.

Brain inflammation, inflamed gut or inflammation in general, will often do things to your mood as well.

edit: spelling

 

Thanks @JemPD, she is 12 now and has almost completely recovered/remission with low-dose cortisone.

 

Maybe it means that this whole personality type stuff is bunk.

 

I think your answer is on the polite side.

 

I'd like to add one more here:

d. Situational factors
People who make it to Dr. Vallings clinic probably went to an enormous amount of trouble to get there (many travel long distances, and the cost of the consult is high). They are there because things are really bad, and they have tried everything else and failed. When they arrive at the clinic, this is their last hope. They're feeling utterly desperate for reassurance and above all, answers. They're worried about their future, their employability, their careers, their relationships. All this stuff pours out at the session, making them look pretty intense.

 

I love this paper, @strategist! It goes beyond clinical trials and talks about how clinicians can acquire the firm conviction that what they are doing is working, even when its not. A complex mix of things, including naive realism, desire to see onesself as useful, overconfidence (which is trained into them, and then further enhanced by repetition). Then add to that the very unreliable sources of feedback they rely on - which is people displaying polite thanks and then just not coming back!

 

Reminds me of the "some people are left-brained and some people are right-brained" baloney that was rampant not long ago (still persists unfortunately). The concept has since been disproven.

 

Yea, it has! There was a hilarious bestselling book in 1990s "drawing with the right side of your brain" that recommended you should turn a picture of a face upside down to draw it. Its true we engage a lot of right hemisphere when processing or drawing faces. But turning a face upside down actually does the very opposite - it increases the participation in the left hemisphere! it was all so bunk.

 

I saw Dr Vallings 10 months after my severe ME onset. I was so ill I could barely sit in the chair and talk to her. I handed a list of my symptoms over to her. It had taken me a hour to get to her and I burst into tears while with her. I was so so ill. She diagnosed me with ME and I was so grateful to her. The added stress of seeing GP's who were flummoxed as to what was wrong with me. My GP's knew I was very sick and did a lot of testing but I don't think they would have given me a diagnosis of ME.

After seeing Dr Vallings I was relieved to see the words "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" written in very large letters across the page of my GP medical notes. (I would have preferred ME!).

I often think back to my doctor visits before I got ME and how relaxed I were at appointments. When you get an illness where there is no treatment and no understanding of what is causing it and the symptoms are severe and frightening, it creates a lot of anxiety.

 

Personality types turn up in the most unexpected places, in our local farming paper for example.
In summary the study reported on showed that curiosity about a new object is more likely to occur if it is directly preceded by some nice food than by standing out in the rain. Not only are we talking about the bleeding obvious here, we're talking goats! Oh, and goats with a bolder personality are more likely to be curious. Not at all clear how they tested for bold goat personality but facial expressions were involved, I guess questionnaires didn't work so well...


http://digital.southernrurallife.co.nz/olive/ode/srl_daily/

 

That would maybe help with the drawing, but for the reason that you would have to concentrate on drawing what is actually there, and not what you think is there. (shapes, shades, etc) It would apply to drawing anything.

 

Fascinating that there are such things as non bold goats! I thought their personalities ran from curious to head butt.

 

Code:

https://www.facebook.com/TomKindlonMECFS/posts/1211871762294280

 

Who knows what she meant? If she does not validate her observations through scientific publications, her experience from seeing patients remains hear say. We now know patients deal with tremendous amount of neuroinfoammation. Depending on the state they’re on (rested, crashed, over-stimulated, stressed out etc) their sleep will reflect that state.

The very unfortunate aspect of discussing her views is that it certainly shades her career accomplishments deep gray. Patients deserve more than that.

 

I think this is a classic case of, "all my facebook friends agree with me".