CFS is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is a medical condition that causes long-term physical and mental fatigue. It also causes a variety of other symptoms.
The causes of CFS are not known, and there is no cure. Some sufferers do recover. Others can improve and lead a more normal life if they learn to understand their condition and find ways to manage their symptoms.
There are other terms for CFS that all mean the same thing. They include:
It is not the purpose of this web site to give you comprehensive information about CFS. There are oher web sites for that. For example, the United Kingdom charity Action for M.E. can provide you with a lot of good information.
CFS is a complex condition that no one understands very well. It seems to affect the working of the brain and nervous system. So it often has psychological effects. For example, it can be associated with:
These psychological effects can be addressed by CBT. So CBT can often be very helpful to CFS sufferers.
Some other medical conditions have symptoms like CFS.
If you think you might have CFS, then it is important that you have a proper medical diagnosis. This is because you might really have a different condition that can be treated effectively.
Even if you know that you have CFS, it is important to have a medical diagnosis of all your symptoms. It is especially important if you have new symptoms. This is because you might have another condition as well as CFS, and the other condition might have an effective treatment.
It is for your doctor to decide which other conditions might account for your symptoms. The list of conditions that have symptoms like CFS is very long. It includes:
CBT treatment can be helpful even before you have a full medical diagnosis. If you have specific psychological symptoms like depression, anxiety or confusion, then CBT can help you to cope with them. CBT can also help you to come to terms with your illness, and to manage your own treatment.
If you suffer from CFS, then CBT treatment can help you in four ways.
When you have CFS, you often have depression, anxiety or confusion. CBT treatment can help you to cope with these symptoms directly, even though it does not cure your CFS. This is important because CBT is an effective long-term treatment for these symptoms.
You might be able to use CBT treatment to avoid having to take drugs to treat these aspects of your condition, or to reduce the dose of the drugs that you take.
CBT treatement can help you to come to terms with your condition, to be more in control of your treatment, and to be more involved in managing your symptoms. This is important because CFS is a complicated condition that affects different people in different ways.
There are no standard treatments that are equally helpful to all CFS sufferers. So when you are involved in managing your own symptoms, you can tailor your treatment according to how CFS affects you most. In this way you can get the best value out of the treatments available to you.
If other psychological conditions affect your life, then CBT treatment can address them at the same time as the main symptoms of your CFS. This can be important if you have always had some psychological symptoms that were so minor they were not worth treating.
When you have CFS, every little problem that you can overcome is a step forward. CBT can deal with minor psychological issues quickly, effectively and permanently.
CBT treatment gives you long-term strategies for improving the quality of your life. This is important because CFS is a long-term condition that will only improve slowly. The long-term strategies that you learn through CBT are an appropriate way to manage your long-term psychological symptoms.
© 2004, 2008 Louise Ritson. All rights reserved.