LOOKING BACK WITH ME:
Living for a quarter of a century with
the neuroimmune disorder ME
(Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
By Hazel Stapleton
Day One. 64 pages. £5
ISBN 978 1 846 255 823
It’s tough to have ME. The exhaustion and pain are bad enough, but the illness is surrounded by ignorance and uncertainty, even among health professionals. There is no definitive diagnostic test and different therapies work for different people. Many specialists believe that ME is not a single entity and this adds to the confusion.
This book was written to help people understand the impact of severe ME. Hazel Stapleton was 18, a committed Christian, and training to be a nurse when her health deteriorated suddenly. Since then she has encountered many difficulties and frustrations, not least the prejudice which writes off the condition as ‘all in the mind’.
This seems to have led the author to view all psychological intervention as misguided (a link on her website speaks of ‘psycho-heresy’). However there is ample evidence that inflammation of the brain can have intellectual and psychological repercussions. She is also rather dogmatic on the medical front – for example in her opposition to Graded Exercise Therapy (because it made her and many others worse) whereas the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / ME recognises that some people benefit from this approach.
One of the book’s endorsements admits it is not a cheerful read, but I found the Scripture passages uplifting and reflected on some of the suggestions for the positive use of the Internet (live-streaming of services, writing e-mails to missionaries).
Gospel call
Many of my patients suffer from ME. This writer has coped admirably with a serious and disabling condition and yet found the time and energy to help and encourage others. In Chapter 11 she issues a clear gospel call and looks forward to heaven, where she will have ‘a new body, one that works and is not falling apart!’
As a guide to ME and its management, I have reservations. As a personal story of hope in God despite chronic ill-health, it’s great.
