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M.e., Chronic Fatigue Syndrome And Fibromyalgia: The Reverse Therapy Approach
For years people have been looking for news of an effective treatment for M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. At last, here is the book they have been waiting for. Reverse Therapy is the radical new Bodymind healing process that has taken the UK by storm, bringing relief to hundreds of sufferers from these conditions since it was first offered to the General Public in 2003. Dr. John Eaton has now written this short book in order to explain Reverse Therapy in simple terms, accessible to the general reader. He describes how he evolved the ideas for Reverse Therapy and the underlying treatment process. Other chapters explain the nature of these illnesses and what exactly causes the symptoms. Then John goes on to describe how Reverse Therapy works and what sufferers can do to get well again. This may well be the first and last book anyone will need to buy in order to understand M.E./CFS and Fibromyalgia, and find the way to their cure.
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2005
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December 18, 2015
Dr John Eaton wants to reacquaint you with Bodymind.
Despite his doing his best to convey it by withholding articles and possessives (it's never the Bodymind or a Bodymind, never your Bodymind, and only very rarely someone's Bodymind), Bodymind is not separate entity, a superintelligent alien being bent on taking over your brain and manipulating you like a cheerful meat puppet. Bodymind is part of you, and Bodymind is your friend; it's "far more intelligent than Headmind and in tune with our core need for truth, love and personal fulfillment" (p. 40). "Bodymind... is an incredibly clever thing. It does the complex job of protecting, motivating and guiding us..." (p. 52) "Bodymind is incredibly intuitive, but also gentle and protective. It exercises continuing care and concern for your well-being, asking only that you by honest with your emotions and that you become the person that you were truly meant to be" (p. 72) "It continually acts like our guardian angel" (p. 31), and "seeks to protect you from harm." (p. 50)
That's why it gives you cancer.
No, really. It says so from page 34 to 35: "Sadly, in some cases, such as cancer, if early-stage symptoms are not picked up and acted upon, major symptoms may set and can prove irreversible."
And this is pretty much the message of the book: your illness is the result of your not listening to Bodymind, and if you don't start listeningbefore the wind changes in time, you may be stuck that way. Eaton stops short of explicitly blaming the victim, but only just; with all the reproach of a disappointed father, he writes about how Bodymind is "forced" to send us symptoms when we aren't listening to it, then ramp up those symptoms when we respond to them as, well, symptoms, until it can break the systems of the body and send them permanently haywire. (Though Eaton is curiously silent on how it is that the oh-so-intelligent Bodymind fails to realise that "negative" reactions to symptoms - distress, upset, frustration, fear - are not going to be helped by the creation/exacerbation of more symptoms, but will instead break its vessel by bringing on debilitating or even terminal illness!)
As mentioned, he never actually says that your illness is your own fault for not listening to Bodymind, but then he's very good with weasel words. From the introduction, he tut-tuts at those who dismiss the illness as psychological, while making it out to be such himself: "The notion that the symptoms of M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are 'all in the mind' is one example of ignorance. As we shall see, this is very far from being the case. The symptoms are in fact created by glandular changes in the body and are very real indeed! These hormonal changes are, in turn, triggered by signals from the Emotional brain, which is the core mechanism of Bodymind." (p. 2) Don't you feel better for that clarification, now? "Its symptoms are created automatically by reflex neurochemical reactions," "[o]ur clients are certainly not conscious of these complex neurochemical changes and (unless they enter Reverse Therapy) are unable to control them" (p. 85). That obviously sets CFS apart from things like Clinical Depression... except that you could describe the biochemical imbalances of depression in pretty much the same way...
At no point does Eaton explain why Bodymind puts some people through this and not others. Everyone, after all, has to choose between indulgence and duty now and then in their life, but plenty of people choose the latter path time and time again (to the point of self-sacrifice, sometimes) without ending up debilitated by illness - I mean, "symptom messages." Talking this over with my partner, we could find only one conclusion: if Eaton's theories are true, you got sick because YOUR BODYMIND HATES YOU.
At least that explains the cancer, I suppose...
Okay. At this point, let me take the time to describe my experience with this book. I've been hearing about Reverse Therapy for years, and been dubious, but I don't want my cynicism to stand between me and a possible avenue of recovery. So when I found the book in the library, I gave it the best shot I could. I shoved my doubts to one side and went into it with an open mind, thinking that even if I couldn't see it being the cure it purported to be, I might take something away from it - if nothing else, the ability to criticise from an informed standpoint. But I tried, really I did.
It took me weeks to read. It's under 120 pages long, written in basic (if very Headmind) style, and yet it took every renewal the library would offer for me to finish it. I would read a page or two and come across yet another gross misinterpretation of how the body or the Illness worked, or another set of weasel words, and barely manage not to throw the book across the room in frustration. My partner was urging me nightly (because I was doing this daily) to stop wasting my time of the poorly written, appallingly edited and generally wretched piece of crap, and I persisted because I wanted to be sure before I put it away - because I knew I would never be able to stomach going back to it.
It occurs to me with some irony that my possibly exacerbating my condition by pushing through the book could be a message from "Bodymind," which didn't want me to read about this scam which preys upon the desperate.
Writing my review was as painful as reading it. The book's two weeks overdue and racking up fines even after all the renewals, because I keep reaching the point where writing "IT SUCKS, IT REALLY DOES" ten thousand times is more tempting than spending more of my energy trying to dissect it.
For one thing, Eaton doesn't seem to have much of an understanding of CFS for someone claiming that his book "may well be the first and last book anyone will need to buy in order to understand ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, and find their way to a cure. He explains post-exertional malaise as being "over-stimulation[sic] of the muscles" (p. 87) that leads to exhaustion, ignoring the fact that it can be brought on by mental efforts (such as trying to concentrate on a book or do a crossword puzzle) alone. Headaches are simply "one muscle - the scalp muscle - overworking and creating pressure on the skull" (ibid.) - but what about the non-muscular headaches? And so on through a blithe description of symptoms that has little to do with the actual experience of anyone I know.
For another, the entire premise of Reverse Therapy for CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia is that not listening to one's Bodymind causes an escalation of symptoms that eventually overwhelms the Hypothalamus, resulting in an HPA disorder that Eaton refers to as "hypothalamitis." Only to quote Dr Charles Shepherd, former head of the British ME Association, "no research group has yet produced any evidence of hypothalamitis in M.E./CFS." Not that this gets in the way of Eaton's assertions, because he's not bothering to cite anything that justifies them. But then, he also doesn't bother to define many of his terms - I came all the way through the book without managing to work out what a "cellular memory" actually was, nor managing to reconcile the different definitions of Bodymind (on p. 11 it incorporates the glands, skin, muscles, gut and immune system; at other points it's separate but acts upon these things. Sometimes it seems to be the "Emotional brain," at others that's only one part of it. It's instinct that surpasses the "Headmind's" learned responses, and yet sometimes seems to rely upon them (see p. 47 and the stick/snake example)). And since Bodymind requires action (p. 65) to prove that your attitudes have changed before it will stop sending symptoms, but symptoms can be so debilitatin as to preclude action, what exactly is someone supposed to do if they can't demonstrate their supposed reformation? I've read blogs from Reverse Therapy participants facing precisely this dilemma - it's heartbreaking. (Example, albeit from a Mickel Reverse Therapy participant, here.)
He does find time, though, to criticise other schools of thought, conventional medical treatments, CBT, pacing, and so on - often at quite some length. Conventional medical treatments may do more harm than good, Eaton warns, and he "prefer[s] clients not to take other treatments as long as they are working with us" (p. 66). He also advises distancing oneself from other people with CFS, who will only "reinforce an illness mindset" - surely a cure works no matter who your friends are? But then, Reverse Therapy is never unsuccessful - only unfinished; an Action for ME report notes "One person recalls: ‘I remember being concerned that no matter how many sessions you’d had, if you weren’t cured, you were classed as not having completed the treatment rather than not having been helped by the therapy.’... Lucy describes how she went for six sessions of this therapy and saw no improvement. ‘The therapist implied that if I didn’t continue with the therapy then it’s my fault’. Rachel too was told that because she had failed to find ‘the message of her illness’, she could not expect to recover." (InterAction #53, August 2005 - Medical Feature. PDF available here.)
Sigh.
Undoubtedly digging up repressed emotional turmoil and similar stresses can help people. Examing thought patterns and working on sources of cognitive dissonance can certainly be of benefit, and can help to overcome all sorts of issues; reviewing coping mechanisms and approaches to a reduced capacity can often show that there's room for improvement. In an Illness like CFS, poorly understood with no proven cause or cure, greeted with skepticism, unpredictable and capable of robbing people of their independence, mobility, livelihood and passions, it's no surprise that people might feel frightened, anxious, depressed, guilty or low on self-esteem - and thus there is almost certainly a place for counselling of some form in the lives of those affected by them. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was some small proportion of those diagnosed with CFS who found that getting in touch with their inner selves rather than constantly bowing to the "shoulds" of the world reduced the stresses of their lives enough for them to feel well - there are some extreme cases of self-sacrifice out there, after all. The CDC currently suspect there are at least 12-15 different conditions - none yet understood - that end up lumped in the CFS basket; perhaps this might even turn out to be one of them.
But to suggest that that's all there is to CFS, that everyone can be cured by "being open with other people," "making time for oneself," "saying 'No' more often," "spending more time on fulfilling activities" or some similar "Bodymind Message" is to add insult to injury - or in this case insult to Illness. There are plenty of people who find that the only thing stopping them from pursuing their passions, pursuing "truth, love and personal fulfillment" and being "the person that [they] were truly meant to be" is the disabling medical condition they desperately wish to overcome.
Despite his doing his best to convey it by withholding articles and possessives (it's never the Bodymind or a Bodymind, never your Bodymind, and only very rarely someone's Bodymind), Bodymind is not separate entity, a superintelligent alien being bent on taking over your brain and manipulating you like a cheerful meat puppet. Bodymind is part of you, and Bodymind is your friend; it's "far more intelligent than Headmind and in tune with our core need for truth, love and personal fulfillment" (p. 40). "Bodymind... is an incredibly clever thing. It does the complex job of protecting, motivating and guiding us..." (p. 52) "Bodymind is incredibly intuitive, but also gentle and protective. It exercises continuing care and concern for your well-being, asking only that you by honest with your emotions and that you become the person that you were truly meant to be" (p. 72) "It continually acts like our guardian angel" (p. 31), and "seeks to protect you from harm." (p. 50)
That's why it gives you cancer.
No, really. It says so from page 34 to 35: "Sadly, in some cases, such as cancer, if early-stage symptoms are not picked up and acted upon, major symptoms may set and can prove irreversible."
And this is pretty much the message of the book: your illness is the result of your not listening to Bodymind, and if you don't start listening
As mentioned, he never actually says that your illness is your own fault for not listening to Bodymind, but then he's very good with weasel words. From the introduction, he tut-tuts at those who dismiss the illness as psychological, while making it out to be such himself: "The notion that the symptoms of M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are 'all in the mind' is one example of ignorance. As we shall see, this is very far from being the case. The symptoms are in fact created by glandular changes in the body and are very real indeed! These hormonal changes are, in turn, triggered by signals from the Emotional brain, which is the core mechanism of Bodymind." (p. 2) Don't you feel better for that clarification, now? "Its symptoms are created automatically by reflex neurochemical reactions," "[o]ur clients are certainly not conscious of these complex neurochemical changes and (unless they enter Reverse Therapy) are unable to control them" (p. 85). That obviously sets CFS apart from things like Clinical Depression... except that you could describe the biochemical imbalances of depression in pretty much the same way...
At no point does Eaton explain why Bodymind puts some people through this and not others. Everyone, after all, has to choose between indulgence and duty now and then in their life, but plenty of people choose the latter path time and time again (to the point of self-sacrifice, sometimes) without ending up debilitated by illness - I mean, "symptom messages." Talking this over with my partner, we could find only one conclusion: if Eaton's theories are true, you got sick because YOUR BODYMIND HATES YOU.
At least that explains the cancer, I suppose...
Okay. At this point, let me take the time to describe my experience with this book. I've been hearing about Reverse Therapy for years, and been dubious, but I don't want my cynicism to stand between me and a possible avenue of recovery. So when I found the book in the library, I gave it the best shot I could. I shoved my doubts to one side and went into it with an open mind, thinking that even if I couldn't see it being the cure it purported to be, I might take something away from it - if nothing else, the ability to criticise from an informed standpoint. But I tried, really I did.
It took me weeks to read. It's under 120 pages long, written in basic (if very Headmind) style, and yet it took every renewal the library would offer for me to finish it. I would read a page or two and come across yet another gross misinterpretation of how the body or the Illness worked, or another set of weasel words, and barely manage not to throw the book across the room in frustration. My partner was urging me nightly (because I was doing this daily) to stop wasting my time of the poorly written, appallingly edited and generally wretched piece of crap, and I persisted because I wanted to be sure before I put it away - because I knew I would never be able to stomach going back to it.
It occurs to me with some irony that my possibly exacerbating my condition by pushing through the book could be a message from "Bodymind," which didn't want me to read about this scam which preys upon the desperate.
Writing my review was as painful as reading it. The book's two weeks overdue and racking up fines even after all the renewals, because I keep reaching the point where writing "IT SUCKS, IT REALLY DOES" ten thousand times is more tempting than spending more of my energy trying to dissect it.
For one thing, Eaton doesn't seem to have much of an understanding of CFS for someone claiming that his book "may well be the first and last book anyone will need to buy in order to understand ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, and find their way to a cure. He explains post-exertional malaise as being "over-stimulation[sic] of the muscles" (p. 87) that leads to exhaustion, ignoring the fact that it can be brought on by mental efforts (such as trying to concentrate on a book or do a crossword puzzle) alone. Headaches are simply "one muscle - the scalp muscle - overworking and creating pressure on the skull" (ibid.) - but what about the non-muscular headaches? And so on through a blithe description of symptoms that has little to do with the actual experience of anyone I know.
For another, the entire premise of Reverse Therapy for CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia is that not listening to one's Bodymind causes an escalation of symptoms that eventually overwhelms the Hypothalamus, resulting in an HPA disorder that Eaton refers to as "hypothalamitis." Only to quote Dr Charles Shepherd, former head of the British ME Association, "no research group has yet produced any evidence of hypothalamitis in M.E./CFS." Not that this gets in the way of Eaton's assertions, because he's not bothering to cite anything that justifies them. But then, he also doesn't bother to define many of his terms - I came all the way through the book without managing to work out what a "cellular memory" actually was, nor managing to reconcile the different definitions of Bodymind (on p. 11 it incorporates the glands, skin, muscles, gut and immune system; at other points it's separate but acts upon these things. Sometimes it seems to be the "Emotional brain," at others that's only one part of it. It's instinct that surpasses the "Headmind's" learned responses, and yet sometimes seems to rely upon them (see p. 47 and the stick/snake example)). And since Bodymind requires action (p. 65) to prove that your attitudes have changed before it will stop sending symptoms, but symptoms can be so debilitatin as to preclude action, what exactly is someone supposed to do if they can't demonstrate their supposed reformation? I've read blogs from Reverse Therapy participants facing precisely this dilemma - it's heartbreaking. (Example, albeit from a Mickel Reverse Therapy participant, here.)
He does find time, though, to criticise other schools of thought, conventional medical treatments, CBT, pacing, and so on - often at quite some length. Conventional medical treatments may do more harm than good, Eaton warns, and he "prefer[s] clients not to take other treatments as long as they are working with us" (p. 66). He also advises distancing oneself from other people with CFS, who will only "reinforce an illness mindset" - surely a cure works no matter who your friends are? But then, Reverse Therapy is never unsuccessful - only unfinished; an Action for ME report notes "One person recalls: ‘I remember being concerned that no matter how many sessions you’d had, if you weren’t cured, you were classed as not having completed the treatment rather than not having been helped by the therapy.’... Lucy describes how she went for six sessions of this therapy and saw no improvement. ‘The therapist implied that if I didn’t continue with the therapy then it’s my fault’. Rachel too was told that because she had failed to find ‘the message of her illness’, she could not expect to recover." (InterAction #53, August 2005 - Medical Feature. PDF available here.)
Sigh.
Undoubtedly digging up repressed emotional turmoil and similar stresses can help people. Examing thought patterns and working on sources of cognitive dissonance can certainly be of benefit, and can help to overcome all sorts of issues; reviewing coping mechanisms and approaches to a reduced capacity can often show that there's room for improvement. In an Illness like CFS, poorly understood with no proven cause or cure, greeted with skepticism, unpredictable and capable of robbing people of their independence, mobility, livelihood and passions, it's no surprise that people might feel frightened, anxious, depressed, guilty or low on self-esteem - and thus there is almost certainly a place for counselling of some form in the lives of those affected by them. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was some small proportion of those diagnosed with CFS who found that getting in touch with their inner selves rather than constantly bowing to the "shoulds" of the world reduced the stresses of their lives enough for them to feel well - there are some extreme cases of self-sacrifice out there, after all. The CDC currently suspect there are at least 12-15 different conditions - none yet understood - that end up lumped in the CFS basket; perhaps this might even turn out to be one of them.
But to suggest that that's all there is to CFS, that everyone can be cured by "being open with other people," "making time for oneself," "saying 'No' more often," "spending more time on fulfilling activities" or some similar "Bodymind Message" is to add insult to injury - or in this case insult to Illness. There are plenty of people who find that the only thing stopping them from pursuing their passions, pursuing "truth, love and personal fulfillment" and being "the person that [they] were truly meant to be" is the disabling medical condition they desperately wish to overcome.
September 10, 2016
This book is about chronic fatigue, and should not use the term M.E. Neurological diseases such as M.E. are not helped by such dubious and faddish approaches to treatment. Reverse therapy is a scam.
December 20, 2024
What a weird little book!
In terms of content, it had some great nuggets in there. I have obsessively researched various mind-body approaches for ME/CFS and this one didn't divert wildly from common main themes, but did frame some things in a different way, which was interesting. I did have a handful of "aha" moments when reading, which is the main reason I've not rated it lower.
Sadly, it might be one of the worst written books I have ever read. I absolutely loathed the terms "Headmind" and "Bodymind" and the absence of "the" in front of either word. It was also inconsistent at times with who the target audience was and what the purpose of the book was. An all round chaotic book / weird sales pitch for 1-2-1 reverse therapy.
The content just about propped up the book, but of all the content on mind-body recovery, this would be quite far down my list of recommendations.
In terms of content, it had some great nuggets in there. I have obsessively researched various mind-body approaches for ME/CFS and this one didn't divert wildly from common main themes, but did frame some things in a different way, which was interesting. I did have a handful of "aha" moments when reading, which is the main reason I've not rated it lower.
Sadly, it might be one of the worst written books I have ever read. I absolutely loathed the terms "Headmind" and "Bodymind" and the absence of "the" in front of either word. It was also inconsistent at times with who the target audience was and what the purpose of the book was. An all round chaotic book / weird sales pitch for 1-2-1 reverse therapy.
The content just about propped up the book, but of all the content on mind-body recovery, this would be quite far down my list of recommendations.
November 18, 2013
I found this book to be amazing. For me it gets to the true source of CFS and has a method of recovery that is straightforward and empowers the individual.
The authors approach is unique and innovative and makes complete sense. I have just started using the methods in this book and can see the benefit, also understanding why this condition comes about, as Dr Eaton explains the disorder of the HPA axis, is very helpful to begin the healing process.
The authors approach is unique and innovative and makes complete sense. I have just started using the methods in this book and can see the benefit, also understanding why this condition comes about, as Dr Eaton explains the disorder of the HPA axis, is very helpful to begin the healing process.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews