Is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome the new name for what we used to call hypochodriacs?

Question

I've read all the stuff on Epstein Barr viruses and Fibromyalgia and testimony from a bunch of people that swear they have it and it's real. I've known several people who have been diagnosed with this, and meet all the medical "criteria". Looking at the medical criteria, It seems rather vague to me. I also know people who have things like, migraines immunological disorders and such, even allergies...Those things can be diagnosed and treated. But I've noticed that ALL the people I know with CFS also claim to have a plthora of other ailments including the ones I listed. The difference is they have them ALL. Not allegies or headaches...Everything! I find this very hard to believe...because being symptomatic with every ailment seems more like a hypochondriacal attention seeking behaviour......than anything else. I don't want to seem like I don't have empathy for those suffering.....but Where do we draw the line? I get tired of hearing how someone is "dying" everyday.

Answer 1

Some people with CFS are truly totally fatigued, but others I've noticed do have other ailments and whether they are just excuses so they don't have to perform (it's part of the CFS) or if it's symptomatic, or not I'm not a doctor and I can't say.

I can tell you that I had a long time friend who had EB, then later called it CFS and was still holding on to the CFS at 12 years (when studies said the longest of people having CFS was 10 years (at that time; I don't know if that study is proven or not). I brought that to his attention and immediately he sprung up out of his funk, started riding a bike, bought himself some new clothes, started a business, started going out, and got married. So sometimes it takes someone to come along and say, "hey".

Seems that CFS from what I saw was like a phobia in that it's almost like your growth is stunted and you can't get out of bed and face things.

Answer 2

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - The imporant word her is SYNDROME. A syndrome is not in itself an illness, but a conglomeration of symptoms. You see, and I don't know where you are from but, generally a diagnosis cannot be given for 6 months after the complaint of being unwell, as it will be enough time to rule out anything else that may be causing the symptoms.

People with CFS don't just have allergies, or else they would just have allergies and not CFS, likewise for any other ailment. They have symptoms of other conditions like allergies, headaches, etc, and because they have so many symptoms, the condition becomes a syndrome. That is like saying cancer doesn't exist, and trying to prove it by saying that person X has pain, person Y has this symptom, etc. And, because they can all be conditions or ailments all or there own, must mean that cancer doesn't exist.

Sadly, we can 'see' cancer and we haven't the knowledge to determine the cause of CFS.

As for the 'dying'- what else do you think we have? I die every day; that is all I am really doing. I can't hold down a job, friends get sick of me not being able to do stuff with them. I never know when or IF I will see friends and family again. People just walk out of my life because they can't be bothered trying to understand that I am not happy being this way. I am 24 and trapped in a failing body that feels 84. That is dying.

However, I do understand your viewpoint. Too many people use it as an excuse. Its like people who don't want to work always used a bad back as an excuse and now, I do believe that they use CFS as an excuse. It is so hard to diagnose, and there really is no conclusive test. Sadly, that makes it open to abuse from lazy people and such. There used to be an M.E. clinic where I live, it closed down because of all they people that abused it when there was nothing wrong with them, and they only people who suffered, where those who really needed it.

But, I KNOW that it is a very real condition and although you hear the symptoms and think that it doesn't seem so bad- it is, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. You couldn't begin to believe how it feels to be so trapped by a plethora of symptoms.

I get tired of hearing that it isn't real and everything is in my head and I've listened to it for ten years. Only difference is, at the end of the day, you can walk away and say maybe they are 'dying' or maybe they aren't. We can't walk away from this and to have someone assume that you chose to live like this- well that can kill us emotionally.

I hope that you gain a greater understanding on CFS from this.

Answer 3

CFS leads to other ailments because anything and everything brings them down. It is an actual illness, and many times, they are too tired of everything. This being said, it should not be that hard to understand. Though they may sleep, the hypothalamus may not allow them to rest totally. Think of it as not sleeping for nights on end, and then having to work at a very important project at work.

Lack of sleep leads to delayed wound healing, it leads to increased anxiety and anticipation, lower levels of full awareness, and increased illness because of lack of mindfulness.

About your last comment, I find it particularly striking in the US above all. People use a lot of hyperboles like "dying", "broke"... It seems to be whoever has most ailments. Working at a hospital, I hear people using such terms, and in the light of some of the patients that I have to write diagnoses on, it is upsetting at times. We are living in a country where the one with the mostest seems to be the most pitied...and envied.

On a final note, a lot of people are trying to figure out what is most painful. That is so subjective! Pain is simply what a patient or person says it is at the time they feel it. What's a 1 for me could be a 8-9 for you and vice versa! It is also cultural to some extent! Some cultures tend to willow in pain, while others won't show pain at all, or express it. The same goes for genders in certain cultures. Hispanic males tend to not want to be asked about their pain, while Asian males are more honest about it.

Answer 4

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a disease that causes exactly that- chronic fatique. A person is so tired all the time that they cannot function normally.
Hypochondria is a mental illness- obsessive-compulsive disorder. A person imagines that there is always some major illness overcoming them, and the imaginings are so powerful that the sufferer actually may begin to experience "symptoms". If the person actually has any illness, their mind will not allow them to think of anything else to the point that they cannot function normally.

Answer 5

persistent fatigue syndrome - a relentless feeling of tiredness and fatigue, loss of skill, does no longer pass even after a protracted relax. This ailment is very genuine for citizens of stepped forward worldwide places and populated cities. the main effective clarification for the syndrome are seen long-term psycho-emotional stress on the human worried gadget. in actuality, persistent fatigue syndrome confronted by utilising human beings elderly 25-40 5, because at this age they're greater smart and attempt for success and profession develop, laying the back-breaking load. in accordance to information, approximately eighty 5-ninety% of human beings stricken by this ailment are citizens of enormous, densely populated cities, with the sped up %. of life, and unfavourable environmental circumstances. the biggest sort of situations registered between citizens of united statesa. and Australia.

Answer 6

I recently read something where neuroscience was discovering a link to altered brain chemistry. Keep in mind that many of the symtoms do have a root in brain functions. The research was tied to PTSD and depression altered brain chemistry -- two physically based illnesses that once were thought to be wholy psychological.

I suspect that CSF is a bucket for a handful of related illnesses, kind of like "cancer" once was.

Hypochondriacs tend to link anything they feel to a wide range of illnesses. It's a very different condition. That's not to say that some people claiming CSF aren't hypochondriacs, or that some aren't using a medical label to excuse their behavior.

Answer 7

No, I think Hypochondriacs think they have all kinds of illnesses everytime they get a twing or ache. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has a specific set of symptoms but no known cause or treatment. I think it is probably not a new disease but just one that people get if they try to do much in life, get run down and their bodies start to weaken. I am sure our ancestors had it but they just were happy they did not have black plague or dysentry or whatever was killing off the folks in their village.

Answer 8

I think you hit the nail on the head..,another word to try is laziness.You dont exercise you get lazy and tired.People have to have a name put on lack of personal responsibilty.I dont understand it.