Getting started

The MEMap App is for Android devices. You need an Android smartphone or tablet (version 4.1 Jellybean and upwards) to download it from the Google Play store. Realistically you need a minimum screen size of 4.5 inches (though as small as 3.6 inch WILL work). The App costs £4. Download it from the Google play store. To fully exploit the App, take the Config Journey on this website and use MEMap to communicate with others, you need to Register for online services. To do this, choose the Register menu option. To register we suggest a donation of £4, but it's your choice. If paying feels difficult or wrong, email us at [email protected]. If you do not want to configure your App you do NOT need to register: in this case do read 'Easy MEMap'. However you are planning to use MEMap, you are advised to first play with the App, then watch the video, then swipe through the short Guide tab on the home screen of the App (press the bottom right button on that home screen if the Guide is not visible).

If you want to configure your MEMap there are 2 options. Do consider whether there is someone with more energy who could look at this website (and possibly the App) and manage the process of configuring you a suitably bespoke MEMap App. If so, sending them a link to the For carers page might just do the asking for you. That aside, the 2 options which exist for configuration are:-

Full configuration. Go to the Config Intro page and follow the instructions to take the Config Journey. This will take some time: aim to take a few sessions and go at your own pace. In part 1 of the Journey there are 6 sections. Simply choose those sections which appeal to you, skip the others. In each section stick to the categories which immediately interest you, quickly skip over the others.

If taking the Config Journey feels too much work check the 'MEMap Flavours' below to see if one of them suits you. If so go to the Config Journey pages and fill out and save the Config completion page. Ignore the 2 prompts on that page marked **. Fill in your username and password and click Configure: a pin will be generated. The config pin you will then use in the MEMap App to configure it will be the pin generated (eg 345) preceded by the letter representing the 'MEMap Flavour' you chose (eg G). IE in this case you would put G345 as the pin in your App. Before taking this config option, do test the browser you are going to use by clicking the Browser Test button here.

This page is designed to get you started as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you want a breakdown of the steps for the fullest use of the App and website, look at the Step by step page. For full explanations about the thinking and rationale behind MEMap, look at the MEMap explained page.

MEMap Flavours

For those who find the Config Journey too much work, or who prefer to work from a more explicit model for managing ME recovery, MEMap Flavours is an attempt to find suitable frameworks for different types of approaches to recovery. Be warned though, each Flavour is designed specifically for those whose mindset or approach matches the name of that Flavour. So any one Flavour will suit only a minority of PWME...

MEMap Flavours gets your App configured with very little typing or effort. The idea is that we characterise common approaches that seem to have been successfully pursued by ME recoverers. If you think any of them seem right for you, instead of taking part one of the Config Journey (Frames config), you instead simply use the letter representing your chosen Flavour. This letter will generate Frames and Reframes for your App. In MEMap a 'Frame' is simply a way to clarify an issue, or a chunk or symptom of your illness. Putting a frame around something defines it, and gives it a separate identity of its own. For simplicity MEMap takes a very liberal interpretation of the term reframe. By 'Reframe' we mean: find the strategy, solution or aspiration that best takes the issue or symptom a Frame describes forward - or demonstrates the outcome you would like. When you configure the MEMap App using MEMap Flavours, the starter text of the Frames and Reframes in your 'Reframe Map' will be the text we have used to sum up the approach (the Flavour) you have chosen. You adapt this text fit to your own needs (and no doubt delete parts of it that don't suit you). It is written in the first person to save you the effort of converting it into the first person yourself. Obviously we have no idea what ideas and words work for you - but the Flavours concept may prove useful to save your energy or get you thinking. If you don't like the Flavour, you can configure another Flavour by attaching a different letter to your pin. The pin is what you generate by taking part two of the Config Journey: to add a Flavour simply add the appropriate letter to the front of the pin. Eg if your pin is 999, G999 would configure your App with the 'Going for it' Flavour.

  • 'Going or it' - Flavour G  This Flavour is an attempt to answer a question of this kind: "I feel strong enough to be really proactive towards ME, and I am willing to scan my life for any area AT ALL where stress could be minimised, or greater wellness added. If you collected key parts of the different successful approaches reported by ME recoverers into a single 'covering many bases' strategy, what might it look like?" MEMap does not cover supplements, drugs, treatment protocols or biomedical issues - naturally, clinicians who felt qualified and able would more actively add those kinds of elements. But Flavour G sticks to using good planning, clear thinking and creative management to really get to grips with ME recovery. This Flavour does assume that you have successfully established that your health can normally tolerate some base level of activity or exercise. There is NO intention that you exceed that base level of activity: at some points there is a simple recommendation to direct the energy resources you DO already have to maximise what they can offer you.
  • 'My energy levels feel completely flat' - Flavour F  This Flavour is designed for the period most people with ME have experienced, where energy levels are on the floor. Typically here, it is very hard to get any meaningful feel for the path towards finding more strength, even a small spark of zest or some real sense of health. It can be hard to make the effort to actively manage ME when the chances of finding better energy feel so distant. Flavour F aims to provide a framework to help navigate these periods, and offer some belief that they do pass and that it IS worth continuing to plant the seeds for recovery.
  • 'Moving from load or stress towards gentle-on-self living' - Flavour S   This Flavour is for those who see various sources of stress in their life and feel that, since ME seems to tolerate stress poorly, it makes sense to identify the roots of the stress and plant seeds for easier, more relaxed living. This pathway is one that appears to be key to the success of many ME recoverers: one of the main reasons MEMap exists is to help people spot the kinds of stress they experience and build routes to lifestyles which genuinely norish them.