Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Shame
2,271 views · Published 29 May 2016 · 5:56 · Indexed 10 November 2026
Channel: Life The Basic Manual · 2016 · Education
As part of Life The Basic Manual’s ‘Surviving Long-term Illness’ playlist, Sian shares from the heart about the suicide of a friend, and how Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and shame about it contributed to that death. She describes her friend as beautiful, intelligent and kind, and as someone who had found recovery from addiction had helped many others to do so as well. Her friend had experienced a sudden onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with many puzzling and debilitating symptoms and tried many ways to get better, but none had been successful. Sian asks the question in this video - what was the point at which her friend lost her resilience, and why? She ponders the essential unknowability of another’s heart, but also feels that she has some insight into some of the factors that contributed to her friend’s death, drawn from conversations they had in the last weeks of her life. Her friend felt both guilty and ashamed of having CFS. Some of the people close to her told her ‘to pull herself together’ and to ‘join a gym’. But she was ill, and in pain, and however hard she tried, could not get back to her pre-illness functioning. Sian suggests that the view in the UK medical establishment that CFS is essentially a psychiatric condition decreases understanding of the syndrome, and often means the public’s response to it is unsympathetic and demeaning. This clip is recorded in honour of that friend, and says to those who have long-term illnesses - guilt and shame over being ill are luxuries you cannot afford. The people that matter don’t mind, and the people that mind don’t matter. You are not alone. You can survive.
