In this Mum and Me episode we talk about misinformation around ME and chronic fatigue syndrome, and how dangerous cure narratives can spread online.

From nervous system “recovery” claims to staged looking health talks and oversimplified recovery stories, we unpack how easy it is for hopeful messaging to become harmful when it ignores the biological reality of ME.

Martina talks about her own experience with EMDR and EFT, what those therapies genuinely helped with, and why calming the nervous system is not the same thing as curing a complex multi system illness.

We also discuss the emotional damage false hope can cause when people push themselves trying to recover, only to end up blamed when it does not work.

Along the way we touch on real biomedical research, including the UK DNA study Martina took part in, and why context matters when public recovery stories are presented as templates.