These “diseases” appear to effect predominantly older women and many of them share the same symptoms, one of which is that there is no apparent viral or bacterial cause. Pretty much the only way you can know someone has, say, Lupus, is that they tell you they have it.

It’s always been my theory that this entire class of conditions are basically psychosomatic illnesses that older women create for themselves so that they can avoid having to be self-reliant and garner attention for themselves once past their ability to attract sexual interest. Since no man will touch them and few men are willing to take care of them, they turn to health care workers who are duty bound to listen to and validate them.

Have any of you known anybody with one of these conditions? I’m not saying the pain and lethargy are not real and I suspect whatever medications they get put on (which are usually anti-depression medications, unsurprisingly) probably complicate things, but I’m saying there’s almost certainly no underlying genetic, environmental or biological basis for them.

Comments?