Chronic fatigue syndrome classed as psychological illness on work's absence documentation

[OliveK]

I am suffering from post viral fatigue after a horrific year of illness. Obviously I am hoping that this is reasonably short lived. But i am also aware that I could be on a pathway to CFS/ME/long covid.
I was looking into the absence procedures for work and they require you to classify your illness/reason for absence.
AIBU to feel uncomfortable with CFS to be listed in the Psychological category? It just seems to be harking back to all that yuppie flu bullshit. I'm not wildly comfortable with having a long term "Psychological illness" on my record. I mean no disrespect to anyone for whom that may be the case. But I am physically unwell!

Fibromyalgia is classed under rheumatology, it could have autoimmune connections. There’s talk of mitochondrial misfunction.

I’ve had masseurs find damage through all my muscles that are usually associated with injury.

CFS, Long Covid, Fibromyalgia… it’s not great to assign them as psychological. It just doesn’t come close.

I disagree. If I had a mental health condition I equally wouldn't want it mislabelled on my record as a physical condition.

These things matter. They matter in terms of treatments and support and for employers they matter in terms of establishing appropriate reasonable adjustments. I don't need counselling I need to be able to work from home during a flare (for instance)

@Jumpingthruhoops I don't know how to edit sorry.
It's just so frustrating - I may be misunderstanding the term, but psychological sounds like it's in your head. As pps have said, its a ridiculous notion that plenty of people still have, that you can some how think yourself better, or it's all in your head. Like telling someone with depression to cheer up!
I really appreciate the links people have provided - it's early days for me yet but I certainly will talk to my employers about it.
I'm in pain, exhausted and just want my normal life back.

Perhaps OP is just sick of people not taking her illness seriously

@SpaghettiWithaYeti that's exactly it! I'm so keen to return to work..I know I'm not fit for it yet, but if I do need supports in place I need them to be appropriate. There will be certain physical aspects I might not be able to do for example, at least to start with.

Call it long covid then. That's a post viral syndrome after all.

I know perfectly well why they develop these ways of responding. I just think that any time I come across that type of reaction, it conveys a shitty underlying attitude towards people with mental illness. It's just unnecessary. You don't need to push other people down to try to elevate yourself.

It's fine to be assertive about the nature of the condition and to reiterate that it's not considered a primarily psychological disorder in origin by medical authorities. It makes total sense to raise concerns when your condition is miscategorised on official paperwork. I'm not talking about people who are reasonably fed up with misconceptions and trying to correct them.

I'm talking about those people (again, not talking about anyone on this thread) who are offended and angry to be "accused" of having a mental health problem, and who are angry because their condition is actually real. And yes, that might be in response to other people around them using "psychological" to mean "not real" in reference to their condition, but it's still shitty to buy into it.

There has been. Some feel it is related to covid and there have been other virus peaks as well.

is it linked to insurance? If so they may be tracking across their providers tick boxes?

Posters are being disingenuous pretending they don’t understand why someone with cfs wouldn’t want it recorded as a psychological condition. The two are clearly totally different. Would we suggest recording arthritis as a psychological condition? It would be ridiculous.

A psychological condition can manifest with physical symptoms which originate in a mental health condition. The treatment path is therefore treating the mental health condition and attempting to reduce any physical symptoms.

CFS/long covid is a physical condition with no known treatment or cure. Full stop. There is no mental health condition and therefore no mental health treatment. And no physical treatment either.

CBT is literally the first treatment listed for CFS in the NHS online guidance.

🙄😳 it’s not a treatment and everyone knows it’s not a treatment for the condition. It’s the only thing the nhs can put as there’s nothing else been researched. The reason CBT is there is to help sufferers adjust their expectations of their life whilst living with the condition (in the same way it might be offered the cancer patients).

@LookAtMyTinyGameBoy Both/all are real! But the treatment/ support is different.

@dreamtolive as far as I understand it, CBT is offered to help sufferers manage how they deal with having a chronic condition? It understandably leads to strong negative emotions...so I think the CBT is about reframing and helping with acceptance of your "new" life..I might be wrong though.

@timenowplease but I don't know if it's long covid. It could be? But I've had experiences like this years before covid so I don't think it is.

I've had the same.. Any time I get massages, they're devastated at what they find and how bad things are. (fibromyalgia diagnosis 2006 after being attacked)

@OliveK Does it matter though? I've had post viral fatigue most my life, it's not taken seriously. If I were you I'd put it down to long covid which is understood to be a thing.

Hope you feel better soon. Are you taking Vit D3?

There is absolutely a psychological IMPACT of it but not a psychological CAUSE

Hi OP, I've been diagnosed with both conditions. They think the ME made me more prone to the long covid. I did a course on long covid and some supplements were suggested including magnesium, vitamin d, vitamin c and zinc. I know you'll hear all sorts of "cures" and I'm not suggesting they'll cure you at all.

I do wish you the absolute best of luck on your journey. It is not an easy one, but there is A LOT more understanding generally of these "hidden" illnesses than say 20 years ago.

No, the guidelines specifically states to only offer CBT to support living with CFS and that it is NOT curative. The guidelines specifically highlights this. 1.12.28 - 1.12.34

For a long time there were no tests to "diagnose" my condition. It didn't magically become a real illness the day a test was invented.

Precisely. There's a genetic test to test my ds condition but only for identified genes.

Otherwise it's a diagnosis of exclusion.

And there's many like him that have right gene fault but "wrong" (unknown clinical significance) fault on the gene.

I have started on vit C, magnesium, zinc and I already took vit D.
Someone else suggested that my off the shelf supplements were crap tho.
I am so wary of getting dragged down lots of rabbit holes...years ago people posted about really weird shit like ground up sharks teeth...and I spent lots of money on homeopathic remedies, which I really don't even believe in.
I know it's just rest and time really...but fuck me it's frustrating and awful

I too have taken magnesium, vit d, vit b, and many others. I get momentarily attracted by various possibilities, then remember that nothing else has worked so taking a random supplement probably won’t either.

I’ve also seen really poor information distributed by support groups which totally dilutes the quality information.

Basically self care is the only mitigation I’ve found. Pacing, stress management, exercise, massage.

Fucking tedious, frankly, and so sodding frustrating.

I think it's a little unfair to put that on the OP. MH prejudice is rife in the workplace and she is not unreasonable to be aware of this. Since she doesn't have a MH problem, why should she be labelled as having one? Classifying an illness with profoundly physical symptoms as 'psychological' is simply incorrect.

OP, I'd put neurological.

@dreamtolive as far as I understand it, CBT is offered to help sufferers manage how they deal with having a chronic condition? It understandably leads to strong negative emotions...so I think the CBT is about reframing and helping with acceptance of your "new" life..I might be wrong though.

That is how I offer it, @OliveK . I am very clear with my clients I dont think it is a psychological illness or all in their heads. But also know from experience that there are attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that make managing this and other long term health conditions harder, and this is where CBT can come in helpful (things like pushing yourself too hard because of frustration for example).

Interestingly, since I developed long covid last year, I have had several managers offer me psychological support. I have told them that I dont need psych support as this is a physical health problem.

I do think that as CFS/Fibromyalgia/ME have overwhelmingly been seen in women, the fact that long covid seems to hit more equally may change the landscape when it comes to researching/understanding/treating these conditions.

You've perfectly highlighted my point. Thank you.

I was told to exercise to improve my LC and it made me so much worse. Had a massive flare and crash and ended up feeling worse than I did when it started. ☹️