Terminology - What's in a name

There are many different names used and arguments over the correct use. In general people who are ill tend to call it ME if only because if you say you've got Chronic Fatigue Syndrome not many people know what you are talking about.

There are also schools of thinking that there is a difference between ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

What is generally agreed is that:

• the illness doesn't seem to have a single cause
• there are a wide range of symptoms which can affect you
• there are different degrees of incapacity caused by the illness
• The degree of severity can change over time

Basically what we on this site are calling ME or ME/CFS you may know as:

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

Post Viral Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (PVCFS)

Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS)

but not Chronic Fatigue and not "just feeling very tired"

and not Fibromyalgia, although this seems to be a related disease and our support group welcomes Fibromyalgia sufferers to join us.

We don't think that it is worth putting any more energy into deciding what this illness should be called. In general on this site we will refer to it as ME/CFS but if any of the other terms are used, they are referring to the same illness.