is me and cfs the same?

Hi Sarah, as far as I know they are the same thing. I do find pacing helpful some of the time. Tho some of the time nothing I do seems to make any difference really. I often feel like I just have to stop and nap, wish I could recognise I'm doing too much sooner than that so I don't have to sleep so much. 

Xx

Hi Sarah - wish I knew the answer to this, seems like no one really knows for sure - some say the are the same some say they are not same...NHS website say there are the same, but most practitioners call them separate...

My CFS specialist said I had CFS and that would cause all the neurological, sore throat, flu like symptoms, heart symptoms everything - he said they are the same thing...

He also said that most get better within 2 years, im coming up to that in Dec and im not close to getting better im just the same as i always have been - i have symptoms every single day, but still manage to get my kids to school and run a hoouse best i can...had to give up work though - im hearing  more and more aboout recovery - its best to stay positive...i believe its possible and its like untangling the complicated web of what is causing your own symptoms in the first place - some it can be candida / some can be adrenal / some stress / some sleep probs / i think help whats causing it and it can improve..I havent found out yet what my thing is unfortunately.

 

Sarah: There have been previous threads discussing this topic ad infinitum. Don't know if they're still up and you can access them.

The alliance wish to see a reform of the current NICE guidelines away from the current psychiatric ONLY treatment policy, which led to the death of Sophie Mirza and an end to the introduction of BDS for our many misunderstood diseases, that psychiatrists are now using to forcibly persecute Karina Hansen in Denmark.

The alliance also strongly refute the decision to rename Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as 'CFS' and wish to return to the name M.E that is recognised by WHO G93.3 ICD-10, which classifies Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, under Diseases of the nervous system, and states that M.E. is a neurological disease. 

We welcome anyone who has any neurological type condition, be it M.E, CFS, Fibromyalgia, Lyme disease, POTS, GWS, P.A etc and we respect that you all are suffering from a medical condition but all those who wish to join our group should respect our belief that the name 'CFS' was the invention of corrupt psychiatrists and your diagnosis will eventually turn out to be a neurological condition. God bless you all, we will win this war together. 

That is an extract from a very informative group on fb which you should check out. Search for The ME Alliance and you can join the public group. Michael is very very knowlegable and is always on hand to answer questions.  Hopefully you will be able to get the answer there.

Generally CFS seems to be applied to a wider group of people than ME, and there are some different criteria, but no-one has much real understanding of either, so debates about the extent to which they are different or over-lap can end up getting rather confused.

Hi Sarah I believe that ME is the long standing name for it with CFS being the more recent name for exactly the same thing.  ME I think is linked to infalmation which is not always present therefore CFS was adopted by some as Fatigue is a strong factor which most of us suffer with.  All the other symptoms of our condition seem to differ between sufferes but fatigue is present between almost everyone. - That's how I've interpreted it anyway.  Personally I always use ME because more people consider ME to be more life altering that suggesting I'm just tired.  Cos people without our condition get tired, they rest or they push themselves a little more then rest.  We rest and don't fully recover.  I think fatigue is too belittling, exhausted is a better word.  When people without ME/CFS/Fibro are exhausted they understand that it can be function stopping. That you are silly to carry on when you are exhaused. Just my thoughts.

In terms of the 2 years recovering. It's not true I'm afraid.  It is considered that if you rest alot, pace etc as soon as you develop ME/Fibr/CFS then there is a chance you can remarkably improve within a 2 yr timespan. I think that would have to take into account how bad you are suffering when it is diagnosed.  I've had it 22years - it's been worse than ever this last year.  But I am rubbish at resting and it was only diagnosed 2yrs ago this month. Therefore maybe I can start the clock from the diagnosis point and I have only days left of suffering. Yepeexx can't wait

I heard you can recover from m e. in time perhaps the same applies to cfs but i don't really know to be honest.

Richard