Afflicted

An opportunity missed to help those with ME and educate the idiots who think it's psychosomatic. Do you really think we'd choose a life with "forever flu", unremitting pain and utter exhaustion? There is enough evidence showing mitochondrial disfunction!

Just when myalgic encephalopathy is getting recognition as a real, horrible disease, this crud comes out, "reaffirming" that if we just tried harder, we wouldn't be sick. Sadly, that is anything but the truth. Please do not watch.

They had an opportunity to do a great service to educate people about these illnesses but they add to the problem. They did not even follow what the National Institute of Health uses as criteria to dx, and treat. They are suggesting psycho-social disorders but if they had researched any truly scientific journals or contacted top dedicated researchers, not fly by night, just pocketing money from desperately sick people, quacks, this could have been an awesome awareness avenue.

Extremly disappointed. They should be embarrassed by the lack of real research on their part.

This show markets itself as bringing awareness to the struggles of people living with chronic illnesses, but it seems like this series was actually made specifically to undermine the credibility of people who suffer those illnesses. This show is full of people with very real and well documented conditions (like lyme disease and dystonia), and others with scientific evidence of toxic levels of exposure to mold, gas, and other pollutants, and portrays all the conditions as psychosomatic and all the people as delusional, attention seeking, and manipulative.

Yes, psychosomatic illnesses are a thing, and there are awful people in any group, but this show leans heavily on a false equivalence to create this impression. For instance, one person is shown getting a VNG -- a common and well established test for neurological and vestibular conditions -- and places it next to someone reciting random "codes" for energy healing, and someone else being "detoxed" with magnets. The show does this without distinguishing in any way between those tests and treatments with proven efficacy vs. the scammy, woo-woo BS.

It also repeatedly conflates psychological and neurological. Diseases of the brain and nervous system are not the same as mental illness, yet the two ideas are used interchangeably throughout the series.

This show has the potential to do real harm to people suffering from chronic illnesses. Don't waste your time on it.

Ok, I can see that this show has touched a nerve in many reviewers. I can imagine the frustration of folks suffering with undiagnosed illnesses. I myself have been dealing with depression and anxiety as well as chronic back pain. I have been trying to find good treatments for years and have found little. Any of these shows can tend towards being a freak show, but I didn't feel that the series is overtly trying to do this. These disorders are hard to wrap your head around, but I do believe that it gives a glimpse into this world. Are these folks suffering from physical conditions or are they psychological. Either way, they are suffering and while the series presents itself as a bit of a freak show, I think it is intriguing enough to engender some empathy from the ignorant, myself including. What is clear is that there is a world of hucksters praying on these folks, which makes me angry. Many of the rouge treatments seem to be completely made up or back themselves up with fake science. They likely make a lot of money off of these folks. To be honest, I am on my second episode, but am intrigued enough to continue. If you are interested in medical mysteries, check this out.