Customer Reviews

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Seven Proven Steps to Less Pain and More Energy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THIS is a good CFS/FM book! The research, experience, and humor in this book might be motivation you've been missing to move from desperate, survival mode to a more endurable, maybe even enjoyable, way of being. Even as a psychologist trained to spot sabotage and denial, Fred couldn't see his own contributions to his experience of illness and life for years,... and he doesn't blame you if you can't either. Having blind spots may be a natural part of adapting -- we all seem to do it to some degree.

This book is especially for those who've reached a coping plateau, ready to concede, at least a little, we have influence about how we feel and react emotionally, intellectually, and physically. Acknowledging and using that influence leads to more capacity to deal with our extraordinary physical challenges. Within each one of the practical Steps are several things to consider, implement, and/or practice. Personal stories illustrate the benefits. Each time I pick up this book, I find something interesting, helpful, or supportive. So has every other person with CFS/FM I've shown it to whether it be about why doctor visits go wrong, why vacations are not necessarily helpful, or how to think differently about anger and guilt.

The author is one of us and writes with such easy going, yet profound, honesty. Its easy to identify with the examples. It also feels like Fred is a friend on the journey with us, especially important if support is lacking from friends and family. I identified with Fred as he describes the pedometer experiment. I did that! I have done all of the "9 Ways to Make Yourself Miserable" in Chapter 16. Having progressed from that place, reading the list makes me laugh. I've read the 'miserable' list to others to a mix of laughter, silence, and groans as people recognize and reveal where they are in their coping.

The cognitively, visually impaired will appreciate the book's signifcant white space and small, clearly marked sections. You can skip around and not get lost. There is no index, so I'll be adding sticky notes to my copy to more easily show items to people in my CFS/FM support groups.

Fred and the 7 Steps book are good companions on the CFS/FM journey. I find there is so much good here I won't be bothered by statements requiring all the steps and promises of this or that percentage improvement. Do what you can, do what you are drawn to. You may get less improvement that way, or you may get more since you are honoring yourself. It may take you more or less time, but the author and book provide encouragement and experience of a professional who lives with and works with these conditions which is amazing. Physiological improvement can and often does follow seeking balance and managing activity. Fred has witnessed and experienced that. I have experienced that in my life. This kind of approach is worth it!

Elly Brosius
Northern VA CFS/FMS Support Group
CFSupport at Yahoo! Groups
[...]

I have had CFS/FM for 18 years. I was 29 when it first hit me. I have suffered incredibly all these years. Relapse and recessions over and over again. I've been unable to work. Been in denial all these years, beating myself up thinking it will one day just disappear. Put my life on hold. Felt guilty I wasn't able to socialize as I wanted etc. I have been feeling pretty hopeless after another bad bout. Then, this book was given to me as a gift. Dr. Friedberg, who also, has CFS and suffered for many years, writes in an easy to understand format, with compassion and experience of discovering how to cope with CFS and lead a happier life. The 7 steps DO work! I highly recommend reading it or give it to someone you love you has it. I have researched tons of things about CFS, but I have never understood it like I do now. I have never understood how I can help myself feel better and keep my symptoms at bay. A definite 5 star review. Wonderfully written.

I really didn't see much in this book that I didn't see on the CFS web site or the CDC or pro health web sites.

I'll grant you, I am quite ill with both FMS and CFS , absolutely homebound with the CFS, so maybe I'm not grasping all the author is trying to convey.

Maybe if ever I don't feel so foggy or even as debilitated as I do now, I will reread this book and find what I so obviously missed.

I got hold of this book by chance; a friend of mine had seen an article on it along with an interview of the author and it was given as a gift to me. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia almost ten years ago after some back surgeries and subsequent infections. Like everyone else who deals with Chronic Fatigue or Fibro, I refused to believe that it would limit me in any way. But as the years went by, I went from rebelling to retreating into my house and not participating in life. I had to stop working. I couldn't participate in my kids school trips or PTA as I had before. I couldn't run/walk/jog/bike/hike like I had. How could I do anything but give up?

This book was a light for me in what I thought would be the dismal remaining years of my life. It gave me basic, good information to increase my overall health, stamina and ensure that I was at the most fit I could be despite the constraints of my illness. I would recommend that any person newly diagnosed, or even, as in my case, any person that has had a chronic fatiguing illness for years, should have this book in their library.

Attributing an illness to a "personality type" has as much validity as blaming evil spirits or original sin. Whether you believe in karma, voodoo, or "personality types", the fact is that none of these cause diseases. So, why does Fred Friedberg claim on page 24 that those who have CFS and FM are "hard driving" individuals, whose character traits "play an important role in the onset and persistence of these illnesses"? This is pure hogwash. If a "hard driving" personality can cause CFS, what is the character trait of people who get the flu? How about the character trait of oysters that get cancer? Do they have "overbooked lives"? Think about it for a minute.

Equally silly is the claim that "stress" causes CFS/FM. The studies that Friedberg cites, in which people with CFS reported "stress" in the year before falling ill, have no control groups. If you asked any random group of Americans if they experienced "stress" during the previous year, 90% of them would say "yes." Stress, particularly physical stress, will worsen CFS, but this has nothing to do with causation. (Diseases are not caused by stress. They are caused by pathogens.)

In 2006, when this book was published, CFS had long been established as a neuro-immunological illness with a viral etiology. But while Friedberg mentions that overactivity in the RNase L pathway (indicative of viral infections) is linked to CFS symptoms, he then goes on to claim that correcting "personality traits" can lessen the severity of the illness. Friedberg's ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth is only matched by his disregard for basic biology. The failure of Cognitive Behavior Therapy to improve a single CFS symptom stands as proof that viruses don't give a hoot about personality factors.

The truly ironic thing about this book is that it was published the same year that Sophia Mirza died of CFS. Hers was the first recorded death in the UK officially attributed to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. But in reality Sophia was killed by psychologists who stuck her in a mental institution rather than treat her illness. Sophia's autopsy revealed damage to 80% of the dorsal ganglia in her spinal column due to widespread inflammation. (Damage to the dorsal ganglia would account for most CFS symptoms.) Perhaps Fred can explain how a "type A personality" can destroy 80% of a person's spinal cord. (No doubt he'd claim the destruction was due to "catastrophizing.")

If you have been diagnosed with CFS, don't waste your energy reading this book. Get a copy of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Treatment Guide instead. And, for the sake of your health, avoid pop psychologists.

There is not much new in this book for a long-time FM patient like me. I was disappointed. I expected a newly-published book to contain more new information.