What ME/CFS Is, in Plain Language
Crushing fatigue that rest won't fix is just the beginning. Here is what the illness really is, why a diagnosis is so hard to reach, and how to make your first appointment count.
Read the guide
Understanding
What the illness is, and how it's recognised.
What ME/CFS Is, in Plain Language
Crushing fatigue that rest won't fix is just the beginning: what the illness really is, and why diagnosis matters.
Causes and Symptoms
The suspected causes, the hallmark symptoms, and why an illness that leaves no visible trace is so hard to identify.
The Calcium Clue in ME/CFS
Why diagnosis is reached by exclusion, what the criteria require, and how to prepare for the appointment.
Groups working in the same corner of medicine as us.
Living with it
Managing energy, symptoms and daily life.
Pacing: Spending Energy You Don't Have
The central self-management strategy — and why working with your body, not against it, is the hardest lesson to learn.
Treatment and Symptom Relief
There is no cure — but evidence-based care targets individual symptoms and can meaningfully improve daily life.
Finding a Doctor Who Listens
No specialty has formally claimed ME/CFS — but you can find a knowledgeable, compassionate physician who takes it seriously.
Voices & Caring
Support, relationships and quality of life.
Self-Managing ME/CFS Day to Day
A diagnosis is life-changing — but evidence-informed support can meaningfully reduce its daily burden.
Patient-Reported Outcomes: Measuring What Tests Miss
When there's no blood test, the patient's own account becomes the most powerful clinical tool — and it's finally being heard.
Support for carers, families and friends
Read both guides, written for the people alongside someone with ME/CFS.
Open Voices & Caring →Research
The science, the numbers and what's emerging.
What Long COVID Is Teaching Us About ME/CFS
A pandemic-scale experiment in post-viral illness is finally lighting up a condition medicine overlooked for decades.
How Common Is ME/CFS? Prevalence in Europe
The most comprehensive continent-wide review of prevalence ever attempted — and what it has already found.
ME/CFS Care Without a Script
Effective management has no universal script — here's what thoughtful, evidence-informed clinical care looks like.
Clinics, charities, and communities that know this illness well.
Filthy Family knows that some days, even a shower is the whole achievement.
My Pervy Family sponsors this guide — because even the oddest allies show up for the chronically exhausted.
RK Prime keeps it real, just like honest ME/CFS conversations should be.
Family Sinners knows that rest isn't laziness — sometimes your body just declared war on itself.
DP Fanatics believes two sources of support are always better than one.
Boy For Sale knows some deals cost you everything — ME/CFS patients understand that arithmetic too well.
Mommys Boy knows that some days, "pushing through" is the worst medical advice you'll ever get.
BBCPie knows a thing or two about overwhelming the body with intense, repeated waves.
Sis Loves Me: because when your energy budget is zero, knowing someone's in your corner costs nothing.