10 Reasons Why ME is Real

For anyone who didn’t hear about the Mr Liddle’s ‘delightful’ article in the Sun, here is a link to a copy of it.

 

For those who don’t want to read it I shall summarise. Essentially he says that people with ME/Fibro are not genuinely ill and are only pretending to be ill because it allows them to get benefits and other ‘perks’ of being disabled. Apparently 80% of people on sickness benefits could be working (no idea where he got this statistic). And people with ME/fibro are taking away benefits from people who are really disabled. 

As you might imagine I am very angry and a complaint has gone to the Press Complaints Commission and a brief letter of complaint to the Sun. 

In response to this article – 10 reasons why ME sufferers aren’t faking it. 

1)  The World Health Organisation categorises ME in the ICD-10 as a neurological condition affecting the brain. As far as I am aware the WHO doesn’t generally bother categorising imaginary conditions.

2) The NHS Choices site has a page for CFS/ME where they give information about the condition. The NHS has better things to do than create information pages about ‘pretend’ illnesses.

3)  The National institute for clinical excellence (NICE) have guidelines on how to treat ME.

4)   There are at least 250,000 people  in the UK with ME. Are we all under a mass delusion?

5)  Many people with ME can’t get state benefits because it is a variable condition. In fact   despite the fact that I undoubtedly qualified for disability living allowance (In the opinion of the Citizens Advice Bureau) I wasn’t given it. We gave up fighting in the end because it took too much time and energy.

6)    I get no benefits other than NI credits and we had to fight for those. What do I gain financially by having ME? – Nothing! And I am not alone.

7)   I don’t qualify for a Blue badge or any other ’perks’ because I don’t receive disability living allowance (see 6).

8)   I have lost a job, a career and my independence, as have many other sufferers. Why would we voluntarily do this?

9)   I rely entirely on my husband to support me financially and if I wasn’t married I would have to rely on my parents. If they wouldn’t support me (which they would) I do not know what I would do. But other sufferers do not have the support of friends and family and are in very difficult situations financially. Why would people who had a good income (including myself) suddenly decide not to work? - We didn’t, we had no choice. 

10)The symptoms of ME are complex - If you are going to fake a medical condition in order to get benefits, there are far easier ones to fake... back pain maybe?