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Veronica Heney

@veronicaheney.bsky.social

170 followers 150 following 11 posts

Research Fellow at Durham University, exploring narratives and experiences of madness, mental illness, and mental distress. Interested in stories and why we tell them.

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Jun 18

Congrats Oli - looks fab and I can't wait to read!

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · May 28

This raises questions about what the very nature of care could or should be in the context of self-harm – perhaps we need to throw away old assumptions, and find new ways of imagining care?

Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · May 28

Throughout, unlike prevailing wisdom that suggests care for self-harm requires silence, avoidance, absence & distance (i.e. not representing self-harm to make sure no-one engages in imitative behaviour), for my participants care involved being close to the idea of self-harm, engaging deeply with it

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · May 28

Really delighted to share this paper drawing on data from my PhD to explore the relation between care, texts, & self-harm. Particularly, I draw out how my participants engaged in active, creative, & relational viewing/reading practices to enable care for self-harm: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Creating Care for People Who Self-Harm through Transformation of Aesthetic Objects - Journal of Medical Humanities

The role of fiction in enabling care for people who self-harm is primarily framed as a relation of protection through absence or avoidance. It is frequently suggested that fiction should avoid depicti...

link.springer.com

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · May 15

This is an urgent and incisive post by my wonderful friend and colleague @kacheston.bsky.social, who writes bravely and convincingly about ME/CFS and about the flawed Opinion piece, regrettably published by the BMJ - please do read and share Katharine’s response

Katharine Cheston @kacheston.bsky.social · May 15

I've submitted a rapid response to this BMJ Opinion piece - speaking from my dual experience as both researcher and 'recovered ME/CFS patient' (not a term I'd choose to employ).

Beliefs about ME/CFS can shape lives

Dear Editor,

Last year, I completed a Wellcome-funded PhD exploring women’s experiences of ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ (MUS), a category into which ME/CFS is typically subsumed. During my PhD, I had the privilege of interviewing women living with illnesses including ME/CFS.

My interest in ME/CFS is both professional and personal. In September 2008, around my fifteenth birthday, I caught a ‘flu-like virus. My health deteriorated sharply and I was diagnosed with ME/CFS in January 2009; my teenage years and early twenties were shaped by different kinds of formative experiences. In February 2016, I caught another ‘flu-like virus. To my intense and enduring surprise, my ME/CFS symptoms disappeared. They have not returned.

While Dr Miller and colleagues argue that ‘[r]eframing beliefs about illness, along with specialist rehabilitation, can help recovery in people with severe ME/CFS’,[1] my recovery did not involve any of these factors. It simply happened. My health has changed drastically, but my beliefs about the illness and its causes have remained steadfast since 2008.

In 2013, after four years unwell and a return to severe illness, I came to believe that I would not recover. This belief did not harm my mental wellbeing, contra to the claims of Dr Miller and colleagues.[1] What did harm my mental wellbeing - to such a significant extent that I have since needed professional support to move forwards - were the beliefs that others held about me and my illness: that I could get better, if only I reframed my own thoughts, or did more exercise, or exercised in a different way, or stopped focusing on my symptoms. In short, the belief that there was a ‘path’ to recovery (as Dr Miller and colleagues put it),[1] if only I chose to search for it.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) no longer recommends therapies based on deconditioning and exercise avoidance theories as perpetuating ME/CFS,[2] recognisin…

References

1. Miller, A; Symington, F; Garner, P; Pedersen, M. Patients with severe ME/CFS need hope and expert multidisciplinary care. BMJ 2025;389:r977. doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r977

2. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome: diagnosis and management. 29 Oct 2021. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng206

3. Geraghty, K; Hann, M; Kurtev, S. Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients’ reports of symptom changes following cognitive behavioural therapy, graded exercise therapy and pacing treatments: Analysis of a primary survey compared with secondary surveys. J Health Psychol 2019;24:1318-1333. doi:10.1177/1359105317726152

4. Vink, M; Vink-Niese, A. Graded exercise therapy for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is not effective and unsafe. Re-analysis of a Cochrane review. Health Psychol Open 2018;5:2055102918805187. doi:10.1177/2055102918805187

5. Kindlon, T. Do graded activity therapies cause harm in chronic fatigue syndrome? J Health Psychol 2017;22:1146-1154. doi:10.1177/1359105317697323

6. Geraghty, K; Esmail, A. Chronic fatigue syndrome: Is the biopsychosocial model responsible for patient dissatisfaction and harm? Br J Gen Pract 2016;66:437-438. doi:10.3399/bjgp16X686473

7. Cheston, K. (Dis)respect and shame in the context of ‘medically unexplained’ illness. J Eval Clin Pract 2022;28:909–916. doi:10.1111/jep.13740

8. Sharpe, M. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Functional Somatic Complaints: The Example ofChronic Fatigue Syndrome. Psychosomatics 1997;38:356-362. doi.org/10.1016/S0033-3182(97)71443-9

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Reposted by Veronica Heney

Fran Amery @franamery.bsky.social · Apr 30

If you are a feminist academic, you should sign this letter. forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...

Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia

We call on all trans-inclusive feminist academics and educators to sign this statement: ‘Not In Our Name’ We are non-trans feminist academics and educators. We write in support of trans rights, tran...

forms.gle

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · May 2

Another sunny morning on the @ducu.bsky.social picket line - spreading the word about how proposed staff cuts are a choice not a necessity, and will harm staff and students alike!

A white woman in a blue dress wearing a pink sticker that reads ‘support the university strikers’

A picket line outside a university building on a sunny day

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Apr 29

A sunny morning leafleting on the @ducu.bsky.social picket line - we’re out on strike this week protesting proposed staff cuts, and calling on university leadership to recognise that redundancies are a choice not a necessity!

A leaflet explaining UCU strike action to Durham students - title reads ‘Our working conditions are your learning conditions’

DUCU member on the picklet line, sign reads ‘Save our staff’

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Apr 25

Thanks Abs! Hoping we'll get to connect in person too sometime soon!

Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Apr 25

Thanks Josh!

Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Apr 25

As always, my wonderful friend & colleague @courtneybuckler.bsky.social is wise and principled - I highly recommend these reflections on evidence, expertise, and institutional processes

National Survivor User Network @nsunnews.bsky.social · Apr 17

"I was fuelled by the responsibility I feel to the many, many hundreds of Mad and Disabled people I have the honour to work and organise alongside."

@courtneybuckler.bsky.social on giving “evidence”: reflections on the Community Mental Health Services Inquiry.

www.nsun.org.uk/news/on-givi...

On giving “evidence”: reflections on the Community Mental Health Services Inquiry

NSUN's Senior Policy & Campaigns Manager, Courtney Buckler reflects on the experience of giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s Inquiry into Community Mental Health Services.

www.nsun.org.uk

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Veronica Heney @veronicaheney.bsky.social · Apr 23

Following a blissful 6 months away from social media I am somewhat hesitantly returning - looking forward to connecting and re-connecting in this new space! Anyone interested in my work can find more info here: www.durham.ac.uk/staff/veroni...

Veronica Heney - Durham University

www.durham.ac.uk

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