MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

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Such advice seems culpable. It is misleading, coercive, and potentially dangerous and above all, it is entirely
incorrect. The therapists cannot know that exercise‐induced symptoms do not indicate harm because they
are not carrying out biomedical testing on participants. Furthermore, the use of the pronoun “we” (“the
evidence we have…”) tells participants that:
“we”, the authors, know for certain that symptoms do not equal harm
“we”, the authors, are experts
“we”, the authors, know your body better than you do.
Any alleged “evidence” to which the authors may be referring is likely to be the Wessely School’s work and
as they use their own Oxford criteria for chronic “fatigue”, they may not have been studying people with
true ME.
Worse is to come: “During a setback it is useful to maintain as much physical activity as you can…try to keep to
your exercise and activity plan, knowing (sic) that in time your body will adjust…Reducing activity should be avoided
if at all possible”.
An international expert advises that in ME/CFS patients, if metabolic demands exceeds cardiac output for
even a moment, the result is death (see Section 2 above).
The authors then address “Writing a setback plan” which begins with “positive reinforcement”: “… setbacks are a
normal part of CFS/ME recovery”, which is yet another assertion that recovery is possible with GET, even
though this is unproven.
The authors provide an example of a setback plan for GET participants which they advise should be in the
form of a “note to self” and includes:
• “Setbacks are a normal part of recovery: it is the overall trend that is important
• “I should try to maintain as much physical activity as I can, even though it may feel more difficult than
normal
• “I need to remember that there is no evidence to suggest that my symptoms are causing me any
harm
• “I should try to get back into any activity I have avoided as soon as I can”.
Participants are being taught that they will recover; they must keep exercising and must obey their therapist,
which seems very like teaching participants “auto‐brainwashing”.
The next section of the Manual is entitled: “Thinking about the future: maintaining positive changes” and begins
by informing participants that: “This GET programme will equip you with a great deal of knowledge about your
condition”, an untrue assertion if it is supposed to refer to people with ME/CFS – all it does is to force‐feed
participants with highly biased and opinionated misinformation about a serious neuroimmune disorder of
which the authors appear to know lamentably little.
Participants are told about “Taking on the programme yourself” and that they should involve “friends and
family”; they must keep “written records for yourself…You are encouraged to keep a book to write in, so that you can
summarise your GET sessions and keep a log of what you learned at each stage” and they must think about “your
onward plans and goals”. Participants must also maintain their “physical capacity” and they are urged that: “It
is crucially important not to stop exercising after discharge”.
Once again, the authors reiterate information that many people hold to be misleading: “exercise has been
shown to be a major factor in preventing various diseases and cancers”.