Coping Better With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

by Fernie, Bruce; Murphy, Gabrielle

• ISBN13: 9781855755376
• ISBN10: 1855755378
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-31
• Publisher: KARNAC BOOKS

Summary

CFS/ME is a debilitating disorder which affects both physical and psychological functioning. It is also a poorly understood condition which was not widely accepted as a specific disorder until only a few years ago. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), in conjunction with other physical and medical therapies, is now generally accepted as the treatment of choice for people who are affected by CFS/ME. This book provides the perfect companion for patients to develop and apply new insights into overcoming some of their specific symptoms as well as coping with the syndrome, both during the course of their therapy and afterwards. It provides a helpful structure and framework for understanding CFS/ME and its effects as well as practical exercises to help address some of the symptoms that patients may experience.

Author Biography

Dr Bruce Fernie is a chartered councelling psychologist at the Fatigue Service at the Royal Free Hospital. He also works as a psychologist for CASCAID, an HIV mental health service within South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. He has worked in CFS/ME for four years, in which time he has coordinated the development of, and co-facilitated, the evidence-based group programmes designed to help those diagnosed with CFS/ME. As well as CFS/ME, his research interests lie in procrastination, metacognition and Self-Regulartory Executive Function theory. Dr. Gabrille Murphy is a physician working in the Fatigue Service at the Royal Free Hospital where she is the Clinical Lead. She also works in the Department of HIV medicine. Her interests include medically unexplained symptoms. Gabrielle is actively involved in local and national organisations promoting access to CFS/ME services and ongoing research.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
About The Authors	p. xiii
Dr Bruce Fernie	p. xiii
Gabrielle Murphy	p. xiii
Foreword	p. xv
Coping Better with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME)	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
How this book was written	p. xvii
What is CBT?	p. xviii
Depression and CFS/ME	p. xix
What causes CFS/ME?	p. xx
If we don't know the cause, how can we treat it?	p. xx
About the design of this book	p. xx
Critical incidents, vulnerability factors and maintaining factors	p. 1
Critical incidents	p. 2
Vulnerability factors	p. 3
Maintaining factors	p. 7
Goal setting	p. 11
Why set goals?	p. 11
SMART goals	p. 12
Energy-efficient goals	p. 15
The cycle of goal setting	p. 18
Planning to achieve your goal	p. 18
Baselines	p. 19
Managing baselines	p. 20
Making progress	p. 20
Bringing it all together	p. 22
Flexibility	p. 22
Thoughts and feelings	p. 23
Negative automatic thoughts	p. 24
Alternative view	p. 25
Thoughts and feelings	p. 25
Thought and feelings diary	p. 27
Thought chains	p. 28
Sleep	p. 31
Why do we sleep?	p. 31
Microsleep	p. 32
How much sleep do we need?	p. 32
Sleep debt	p. 33
The stages of sleep	p. 33
Circadian rhythms	p. 34
Monitoring sleep and activity	p. 34
Sleep efficiency	p. 36
Factors that may contribute to poor quality sleep	p. 37
Problematic beliefs about sleep	p. 39
Strategies and techniques for improving sleep	p. 40
Activity	p. 45
Traffic lights	p. 46
Guide for interpreting your own activity diary	p. 49
Boom and bust	p. 50
Energy capsules	p. 53
Impact crosses	p. 57
Challenging unhelpful patterns of thinking	p. 65
Mind the GAAAP	p. 66
Identifying thinking errors	p. 67
Your own use of thinking errors	p. 70
Alternative thoughts	p. 71
Taking the iTEST	p. 71
iTest	p. 72
Take your thought to court	p. 73
Tally the advantages and disadvantages	p. 73
Stress and anxiety	p. 79
Fight or flight response	p. 80
Stress	p. 81
Worry	p. 81
Techniques for dealing with worry and stress	p. 82
Positive and negative beliefs about worry	p. 83
Stop signals	p. 88
Refraining a worry as a goal	p. 88
Example of refraining technique	p. 89
Acute anxiety or panic	p. 90
Core beliefs	p. 95
Rules for living	p. 97
Vulnerability factors, rules for living and core beliefs	p. 98
Other ways to identify core beliefs	p. 101
Looking for themes in your unhelpful thoughts diary	p. 101
The 'what does that mean if that is true?' technique	p. 102
Modifying core beliefs	p. 102
New beliefs	p. 107
Symptom mapping	p. 109
Learning to listen and understand your body	p. 109
What are setbacks and relapses?	p. 109
Warning signs, recovery signs and natural responses	p. 110
What to do if you experience a warning sign symptom	p. 113
Symptom mapping	p. 113
Planning for setbacks	p. 117
Distinguishing between a CFS/ME and a non-CFS/ME setback	p. 118
Possible contributing factors to a CFS/ME relapse	p. 120
Changes in patterns of sleep	p. 120
Changes in levels of activity	p. 121
Changes in emotional state	p. 121
New stressors	p. 121
Medical perspective	p. 123
Fatigue as protective mechanism?	p. 124
Fatigue as a maladaptive mechanism?	p. 124
Joined up Government?	p. 125
Psycho-neuro-immunology	p. 127
Calling ME names?	p. 129
Explaining names	p. 130
Criteria	p. 131
Who gets CFS/ME?	p. 133
Is CFS/ME hereditary?	p. 134
To repeat the question, why CBT?	p. 134
Some practicalities	p. 134
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