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> Yet some patients and their advocates say this amounts to a suggestion that the syndrome might be a mental illness or psychosomatic, a notion that enrages the

> Yet some patients and their advocates say this amounts to a suggestion that the syndrome might be a mental illness or psychosomatic, a notion that enrages them. They would prefer that research efforts focus on identifying a biological cause or diagnosis. The underlying stance (i.e. "psychosomatic and mental illness are no real illnesses") is so utterly moronic I am surprised they even found the tweet button.

xena 8y ago
Twitter is incentivized to make the tweet button easy to reach, because outrage (aka: engagement) gets people to look at ads. It's hard to even look at the failure of the education system for so many. It's sickening.
pjc50 8y ago
> psychosomatic and mental illness are no real illnesses This is what people are told by medical professionals who are refusing to help them.
- jmcqk6 8y ago
  I'm not sure I'm following, so I want to make sure I've got this right. You are claiming that there are medical professionals are telling their patients that psychosomatic and mental illnesses are not real illnesses?
  - pjc50 8y ago
    There are certainly people going to their doctors complaining of various sorts of chronic pain and/or tiredness, who may be given some tests and test negative, who are then told "it's all in your head" and not offered further treatment. (It's bad enough with physical-but-hard-to-diagnose problems like endometriosis; I know someone who's only just got a diagnosis after several years.) The level of treatment you receive and how seriously you are taken will depend on which country you're in, how good your insurance is (where applicable), and how you appear to the doctors.
    - prepend 8y ago
      It also depends on whether the healthcare worker is able to help or knows of any treatment. Sometimes a healthcare worker’s treatment options are honestly exhausted. “Mental illness or psychosomatic” doesn’t mean the patient isn’t suffering, it just means that doc has no idea what to do and that others should be consulted. It doesn’t it stop the condition from being a mental illness.
  - jandrese 8y ago
    No so much that they are not real issues, but that the doctors don't know of anything they can do to alleviate it. Drugs only work as far as the placebo effects work, and have the danger of being potentially addictive on the side. Counseling doesn't work if the person thinks you're bullshitting them just to deny them their pills.
- Nasrudith 8y ago
  They are receiving help - it just isn't the kind they want. (To be fair it may or may not work in their case but they acknowledge it - regardless of assumptions and their correctness.)
  - pjc50 8y ago
    In some cases it's a fairly clear "you're making this up, go away."

xena 8y ago

Twitter is incentivized to make the tweet button easy to reach, because outrage (aka: engagement) gets people to look at ads. It's hard to even look at the failure of the education system for so many. It's sickening.

pjc50 8y ago

> psychosomatic and mental illness are no real illnesses This is what people are told by medical professionals who are refusing to help them.

jmcqk6 8y ago
I'm not sure I'm following, so I want to make sure I've got this right. You are claiming that there are medical professionals are telling their patients that psychosomatic and mental illnesses are not real illnesses?
- pjc50 8y ago
  There are certainly people going to their doctors complaining of various sorts of chronic pain and/or tiredness, who may be given some tests and test negative, who are then told "it's all in your head" and not offered further treatment. (It's bad enough with physical-but-hard-to-diagnose problems like endometriosis; I know someone who's only just got a diagnosis after several years.) The level of treatment you receive and how seriously you are taken will depend on which country you're in, how good your insurance is (where applicable), and how you appear to the doctors.
  - prepend 8y ago
    It also depends on whether the healthcare worker is able to help or knows of any treatment. Sometimes a healthcare worker’s treatment options are honestly exhausted. “Mental illness or psychosomatic” doesn’t mean the patient isn’t suffering, it just means that doc has no idea what to do and that others should be consulted. It doesn’t it stop the condition from being a mental illness.
- jandrese 8y ago
  No so much that they are not real issues, but that the doctors don't know of anything they can do to alleviate it. Drugs only work as far as the placebo effects work, and have the danger of being potentially addictive on the side. Counseling doesn't work if the person thinks you're bullshitting them just to deny them their pills.
Nasrudith 8y ago
They are receiving help - it just isn't the kind they want. (To be fair it may or may not work in their case but they acknowledge it - regardless of assumptions and their correctness.)
- pjc50 8y ago
  In some cases it's a fairly clear "you're making this up, go away."