To wish Miranda Hart had written a different book?

I haven't read her book, or any of her books, but from what I can glean from reviews it is a twee attempt to talk about the value of practices that bring the body into a parasympathetic state - which gives the body a better chance at the self-healing it does so amazingly if given the opportunity, when dealing with chronic disarrangement from chronic illness.

There are treatments for ME, whatever virus may or may not have set it off (isn't it Epstein-Barr most people say?), and people have been cured. The fact you seem so wedded to cure being impossible does not bode well for your future.

It is galling when well-meaning people suggest XYZ that worked for their uncle with a completely different diagnosis, but being entirely negative about any course of action ever working will not serve you well, if any level of recovery is what you're after.

Why are people commenting who haven’t read the book?

Chronic fatigue is a common symptom of Lyme disease and ME. Lyme disease has a well documented and known bacterial cause which if not diagnosed and treated with antibiotics can lead to protracted illness which includes severe fatigue. A simple antibody test will determine if you have had Lyme disease.

ME may well be caused by a viral or bacterial infection but generally a cause cannot be determined.

Maybe the fact that Miranda was able to identify the cause of her symptoms has help her recovery because she has been able to pinpoint the cause.

I suffer with chronic fatigue due to radiotherapy and other adjunctive post cancer treatment. I now have a cause for my fatigue and fibromyalgia type symptoms. It’s much easier to work on recovery when you know why you feel shit.

Im afraid it is all about forcing yourself to do stuff even if your body is screaming no. Otherwise I wouldn’t get out of bed. I plan physical activities so that I have recovery days afterwards. The revelation has been that regular physical activity has improved my problems. But if I miss out on sleep I can easily crash.

Criticising someone who has had a real disease is not very kind. ME and fibromyalgia are still a description of a group of symptoms that science has yet to find the trigger for. Hopefully in the near future there will be a successful treatment that will allow you to get your life back if you want to.

@Angrybymyself

"have a baby, you won't have time to be tired"

Sorry but 😂😂😂

That poor girl Maeve , I think its really awful she died because she was physically unable to eat, given there are a variety of ways to get nutrition into people.

Sympathy here OP, I’m sorry for the pile on you’re getting…bc irrespective of exactly what she did or didn’t mean/write etc, I hear you when you say that you’re frustrated by this becoming another ableist stick for people to bash you with. My DH has MS and this is a repetitive situation for him, and me. People without experience of chronic illness often struggle to understand this. I’m sending love.

I would really reccomend, if able, to read or listen to the audio book "When the Body Says No" by Dr Gabor Maté. It gave me a lot of insight into how my own life had lead me to where I am now, healthwise. I think the problem is, there is a misunderstanding that ME/CFS is the same as, or actually IS just chronic stress and you just need to calm down and distress to cure - which is where the reccomendations from (often well meaning) strangers comes from. I think the real message is that chronic stress is a trigger that primes our systems for chronic illness and disregulates our nervous and immune systems.

She did have Lyme Disease. Maybe ME followed that, I don't know. Lymes is very debilitating.

I voted you are being unreasonable because I don't think she wrote it "because she cured herself of ME and you can too". I think she went a very long time without a diagnosis and she has written about that and how she managed to cope throughout without that diagnosis.

I haven't read it but that is the impression I'm getting from what I've heard and from her press tour so far.

I was going to say this. She had ongoing debilitating fatigue following a bite as a child and Lyme disease that wasn’t picked up. Based on her interviews the book is about how she coped with her illness and, ultimately, for her she worked out what caused it. She said on Graham Norton that she isn’t cured but is managed. She could potentially relapse as the illness has messed with her immune system.

so I don’t think Miranda is at fault. But your friends’ lack of understanding could do with addressing!!

She hasn't cured herself of anything. I thought the book was about her struggles with certain conditions but was definitely not claiming she was perfect and cured of anything.

Pregnancy does make some autoimmune conditions reduce in symptoms or even go into remission. But not much help once the pregnancy is over and symptoms are back and you have a baby to care for.

My relative was encouraged by a GP to start having babies when she was still in her teens because it would ease her arthritis! Thankfully she had more sense.

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I get where you are coming from Op.

I haven't read the book yet, but am half curious to.
But the bit about insensitive "advice" hits hard

I have a rare Neurological condition that has huge overlap with ME (based on how my friend with ME talks about her symptoms anyway) and I know how utterly bleak and minimizing it is to have people suggest the latest miracle cure. It's always something like yoga /a superfood or something. And the implication just seems to be that they think I am ill because I don't take care of my body . In fact I was doing yoga, eating healthily etc all the time I was getting more and more unwell. This kind of "advice" doesn't just show medical ignorance it also reveals an arrogant judgment about who they think I am.

However, if the book is about making peace with a life with chronic illness then I am all for that. I don't think we have to be happy about it every day but I am doing a little better now I have stopped trying to fight against it.

Nice to hear there are some good consultants, when my daughter was 15 , basically wheelchair bound , having a home tutor etc her paediatric consultant ( for something else) told her to ‘stop being a burden on your mother’ . Needless to say we never went back to see him .

I completely agree with you, OP. Relatively few people will read the book but many, many more will have heard her interviews, or snippets of her interviews, saying she had Lyme disease which led to ME, and mentioning ME and Long Covid. That’s the nature of a book launch and she should have thought more carefully about the impact of talking on the subject from such a position of power. It’s been hugely harmful, as demonstrated by the people telling you to read her book (which I doubt they read), and simply adds to the endless swell of misinformation about post-acute viral conditions.

The have a baby cure! My GP told me that would cure ME and endometriosis in one go.
I didn’t take her advice but used to be offered as the cure for everything!

I understand how you feel. I've had CFS/ME for 28 years. I'm mid 40s now. I've had the "have a baby, you won't have time to be tired", "do some exercise it'll make you feel better", "have some therapy". My parents in their desperation spent lots of money they didn't have on treatments that didn't work and witnessed my consultant ripping into her registrar in the 90s for telling me it was all in my head in her clinic.
Its already hard to live in world with an illness that others don't understand without people with a following not being more careful about how they discuss it.
Thankfully for me I have very understanding family, including my parents, husband and 2 kids.
OP, please look after yourself

I have literally given up trying to explain the difference between ME and chronic fatigue. And by chronic fatigue I don’t mean CFS.
I like Miranda and I appreciate her point of view.
However, you have to know if you align yourself in any way to some of the clinics she has credited, you are going to get blowback.
I have heard it all - it’s in your head, you really should try tofu, take some Vitamin D, yoga heals.
I have spent a fortune on cures/clinics, pushed myself when it was stupid to do so, and been abused by some medical professionals who should have known better.
I am sorry to say OP most people still don’t know what ME is. A lot think it’s MS. They think Long Covid is bollocks. Education is important but most people I know aren’t they interested.
I have a few loved ones and close friends who believe in me, who see how hard I try, and I have become more at peace with it. Trying to fight to be heard has just become a thankless task for me.
I still live in hope that a cure will be found.
As for Miranda like many people who use systems like LP they do miraculously recover. I have seen ME patients do the same. Then within months they crash because they are running around in empty.
I don’t wish that for her, I hope she stays well.

Miranda Hart can only write about what she experienced and what worked for her, nothing else.

There aren't very good physiological therapeutics or drugs for ME, so in the absence of those treatments, psychological ones are mostly the only ones available.

I feel a bit sorry for her, nothing she says sounds outrageous to me, but she's wandered into a very upsetting and polarising area.

I don't find it upsetting if someone suggests my migraines are affected by stress, I know they are, but that isn't the cause of them, which may be genetic, hormonal or who knows.

I'm sorry the people around you are so tactless OP. After all this time they should understand there's no easy quick fix and Miranda Hart would say that themselves.

People giving unsolicited and unhelpful advice to people who are very ill should be banned. It's the same with having cancer where you will be sent every newspaper article and book and thought that comes into people's head, unasked.

What they should do is ask you how you are, and if you have seen her new book which looks really interesting, and look for signs that you want to hear more. If the answer is no, stop!

I would definitely read this book because I believe in miraculous healings, I and family have had and keep having numerous such and plus, I like her