Ariel’s Reviews > The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis > Status Update

CFS/ME is a specific diagnosis with a unique set of symptoms, the utterly crucial one being POST-EXERTIONAL MALAISE. It is not simply being very tired. If you do not experience PEM, you do not have CFS/ME. Doctors like to use my condition as a catch-all for fatigue, but that sows confusion among patients, medical professionals, and the general public. It mischaracterizes a disease that makes people bedridden as mild.