Fighting ME/CFS and the Media
These are particularly dark days for people living with ME/CFS in the UK. Sufferers are used to being misunderstood by non-sufferers and unsupported or ignored by health professionals, but they are currently facing their biggest challenge yet - the British Media. In reaction to last week's welcome news that NICE had caved into pressure and agreed to review NHS treatment guidelines , some sections of the media appear determined to misrepresent the illness by minimising its severity and continuing to present the lie that it can be successfully treated and even cured by Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - despite this being vehemently rejected by the overwhelming majority of sufferers as deleterious to their health or laughably inadequate; and what's more, not borne out by the research that close analysis has demonstrated to be scientifically flawed . What could be driving such behaviour? Ignorance and resentment cannot be discounted. (...