Letter, Re: The Office star’s battle with ME (Western Mail, 28 January 2012)

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Western Mail Letters.

If Trudy (played by Isaac) had phoned in sick (The Office star’s

battle with ME, Western Mail, 28 January 2012 --

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2012/01/28/the-office\

-star-s-battle-with-me-91466-30206478/)

and her " Office " manager, Brent, was equally ill-informed and

sadistic as Ricky Gervais, the actor who plays him, he would have said,

'M.E. - not MS, not the crippling, wasting disease - oh no, M.E. That's

the one where, " 'don't feel like going to work today, " ...' (You Tube* -

see below my signature for links, if you wish to see Ricky perform it).

Ricky says that he has apologised to people with M.E., 'I thought it was

psychosomatic but it's physiological ... very misunderstood, so easy to

ridicule ... the symptoms are not apparent, like losing a limb ... they

say, " We're tired, " and we go, " How do we know that, " ... seems like a

molly coddling society that accepts this new disease that wasn't around

100 years ago [sic. This is not necessarily true]' Many of us do not

accept his as a sincere apology since he later repeats the same offence

elsewhere and does the same to people who have other illnesses and

disabilities, who, " are not gonna have a go at me, are you? " I don't

think Ricky does believe that there is a real illness called M.E.

It is true that there is no universally agreed diagnostic test for M.E.

- such as a blood test for Diabetes, or a scan for MS - but you would

have to believe that millions around the world, with so much to lose and

nothing obvious to gain, were malingering or hypochondriacal. The legal

principle of, " innocent until proved guilty " seems to be inverted here

to, " faking until proved ill. "

I believe that Isaac was genuinely ill but I do wonder whether

she had M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), or some other illness. She

might, for example, have been burnt out, exhausted, by all the events

happening in her already busy life, which called for rest, or a change

of lifestyle, to put her right; or she may have had a viral infection,

one like Epstein-Barr (Glandular Fever), which took an unusually longer

time from which to recover, as did Shadow Home Secretary Yvette

and actress Barbara Windsor. These are examples of chronic illness but

not M.E. Some people think it doesn't matter and we can diagnose all

illnesses that have this rather vague symptom of " fatigue " under one

collective term, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). It is known, however,

from hard-knock experience and research evidence (Twisk & Maes, 2009)

that treatments recommended for some CFS patients, such as Cognitive

Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET), may be

disappointingly ineffective and even harmful for M.E. sufferers.

Incidentally, people with MS were once treated with the same scepticism

that M.E. sufferers are now expected to endure, until a test confirmed

it for them. We have learnt nothing from this experience. It is no

laughing matter.

Yours sincerely

drjohngreensmith@...

Dr H Greensmith

ME Community Trust.org

* We have been unable to find the original version of Ricky Gervais,

alone, performing this sketch - we believe it may have no longer be

available to view on You Tube but the main substance is at the start of

these two videos.

Comedian Ricky Gervais on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic

Encephalomyelitis (You Tube, 5 December 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8avzoG5NWI & feature=player_embedded#!

And

CFS/M.E - The Torturous Disease (You Tube, 24 August 2009)

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