Beth Dobbin described ME/CFS as a hellish year

Dobbin experienced dizziness during track competitions and lost feeling in her legs at the starting blocks before multiple doctors diagnosed her with ME/CFS, the BBC reported.

An Athletic Career Upended by a Sudden Body Failure

Dobbin described the ordeal as a “hellish year” during an interview with the BBC, detailing physical sensations that made her feel as though her body was shutting down. As an athlete, Dobbin was already well-acquainted with ordinary exhaustion, but she rejected the term chronic fatigue syndrome as an inadequate description of her condition. “I wish it was just fatigue, that would be a walk in the park,” Dobbin told the BBC. “It is so much more.” She added that the illness feels “as if you’re going to die in a few days.”

The Medical Debate Over Clinical Criteria and Psychosomatic Labels

Medical professionals diagnose ME/CFS through clinical criteria because researchers have not yet identified a biomarker for the illness. This absence of a biomarker fuels ongoing medical debate regarding the origins of the disease, particularly concerning whether psychological factors contribute to its onset. Psychotherapist Bettina Grande criticized current diagnostic trends during an interview with Der Spiegel. Grande argued that the mere fact diagnostic tests yield no abnormal physical findings does not justify categorizing symptoms as psychosomatic.

According to Grande, patients exhibiting understandable distress when their bodies malfunction—such as dropped items or buckling legs—frequently face accusations of being overly fixated on their symptoms. This dynamic results in normal behavioral responses to a severe physical crisis being misinterpreted through a psychosomatic lens.