GRRRrrrr A Symptom Of M.E ?

As I’m gettin older I find myself increasingly GRRRRRRR…ing at things  that bug me hugely, like why are there so few English speaking people in England now? Wherever I go  from shopkeepers to hospitals to restaurants, a simple request often turns into a game of charades as I try to make myself understood, even English kids seem hell bent on speaking Jamaican slang these days and when I try to talk to anyone on tha phone I now get put through to India.

But nothing quite annoys me more than tha word “Depression” being added to the list of symptoms for M.E & Fibromyalgia.  Why? Because its NOT a symptom, and having lived with M.E/Fibro for getting on 21yrs I think I’d damn well know.

Let me start by saying that “Depression” is a serious illness in its own right, I have had family members and many friends suffer terribly over tha years and for this reason, I researched and self studied so that I knew what I was dealing with so that I could help and without meaning to sound arrogant, I now consider myself pretty much an expert on tha subject, although theres always room to learn & grow.

Is depression listed for symptoms of cancer ?   heart disease? MS? In most cases I think not, but its always sat there amongst the symptoms for M.E/Fibromaylagia. Any illness that changes your life would make you feel low whether it be Cancer or M.E, and feeling low and depression are two totally different things, we’re not talking feeling low coz your footy team lost or tha local supermarket ran out of your fave biccies, we’re talking a natural human “I have a frickin right to feel low” reaction because your lifes suddeny WHAM BAM! changed beyond frickin belief, it doesn’t mean we’ve been sucked down into a big black hole, swallowed up, never to see daylight again without a pharmacy full of pills in our bellies.

I defy anyone who loses their health, their career, their social life, disbelieving friends/family members, independence and life as they’d known it, NOT to feel extremely low, that doesn’t, let me repeat doesn’t automatically equate to depression. Its just a normal human reaction to being hit with & living with a horrible illness, whatever that illness may be. But if tha media and other websites and organisations are going to band it about when it comes to M.E/Fibromyalgia then why not list it as a symptom for every illness going, and while we’re at it why not add it to the symptoms for a large boil on tha bum? I mean not being able to sit down for a week or two is pretty depressing huh?

If they’re really gonna list depression as a “Symptom” of M.E/Fibromyalgia then why not throw in “violence” too ?  because I’ve lost count of how many ignorant arrogant bastards from joe public, doctors, just out of nappy psychologists, & jounalists who I’ve wanted to head butt, punch on tha nose or kick between tha groin, on a weekly if not daily basis. And rather than help fund something that would actually be helpful like bio medical research why not just cart us all off to anger management instead?……..please god I don’t speak too soon.

Like I said, depression is a serious illness in its own right, often caused by chemical imbalance, and chemical imbalance can be altered by many things,  stress, unhealthy environment, lifestyle, having a baby, drink drugs etc, it can also be a gene thing, and often runs in families. I’ve known generations of families suffer with it. 

Sure, I and many M.E/Fibromyalgia  sufferers get down, now and then. Try waking up everday feeling as though your dying and still having a whole day to get through, and then tell me you wouldn’t feel a tad low. But like a lot of other people with a lot of other illnesses we learn to cope and get on with it, still have a life abeit limited, and still surprisingly have a sense of humour, I can honestly hand on heart say in my 21 years of this awful illness that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, I have not encountered one who sufferers with depression, I’m not saying there aren’t any, just that I’ve not met any. In fact I’ve been blessed to meet tha most wonderful, strong, determined, inspirational, amazing people.

So leave depression where it is, as a serious illness in its own right and NOT a “symptom” of M.E/Fibromyalgia. And if anyone really wants to add something to tha already humungous list of M.E symptoms then try GRRRRrrrrr. Stay Blessed :) xxx