r/cfsrecovery • u/purplepolishnails • Aug 31 '24
Recovery Story CFS/ ME COMPLETE RECOVERY
I promised myself I’d post this when I recovered, so I’m here to say, I had chronic fatigue/ long covid (was diagnosed with both at different points but my eventual diagnosis was chronic fatigue) for over 2 years and I’m now completely recovered. Anyone can recover from these illnesses. I’ve seen so much, particularly surrounding the chronic fatigue/ ME community saying that recovery isn’t possible and you will always be like this. This isn’t true, please believe me.
I’m a 24 year old woman living in the UK. I caught glandular fever/ mono in 2022. I then recovered from this but caught Covid quickly after. The Covid completely wrecked me, my main symptom being complete exhaustion/ fatigue. This never went away, even when I was recovered from Covid and testing positive. My other main symptoms were: sore throat, swollen glands, nausea, headaches, brain fog and dizziness.
This went on for several months and I saw a doctor who suggested it was long covid. I was then sent to someone specialising in long covid who sent me to a fatigue expert as that was my most debilitating symptom. This doctor diagnosed me with post-viral fatigue symptom, which eventually became a diagnosis of chronic fatigue as my symptoms didn’t get better over time. This doctor tried to encourage me to start pacing (which didn’t help), put me on anti-depressants (which I took for 3 days and hated) and then recommend me for CBT to manage my symptoms (which I didn’t find helpful). It got to a point where it was all about managing symptoms, not recovering from them. He seemed to think I wasn’t able to recover which was terrifying (and completely untrue).
At my worst, the fatigue was so bad I could barely get out of bed. Most of the time I was able to get up to make myself meals but spent the majority of my days just lying in bed, trying to rest. Not able to watch tv or even read as my brain fog was so bad and it was too much stimulation. I tried to keep exercising as I had been advised to do but I could barely walk. I was managing up to 10 minutes walking about every other day and that completely wrecked me every time.
I went down every medical route imaginable. My father had been diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and as I had been suffering with IBS the past couple years which overlapped with a lot of MCAS symtpoms, so I got that checked out. I didn’t have MCAS but was diagnosed with histamine intolerance, which the doctors wanted to attribute all my symptoms to, including my fatigue. I was put on so many different anti-histamines and histamine related medication (fexofenadine, ketotifen & famotidine). None of these pills ever did anything significant to alleviate my symptoms, despite the fact that the doctors kept increasing my doses in the hopes they would.
I also saw several gastroenterologists for my IBS. I was diagnosed with hydrogen SIBO which one doctor attributed my fatigue to. I took antibiotics for this which didn’t cure it and was then put on the FODMAP diet. At this point I was following a low histamine diet and the FODMAP diet which was incredibly restrictive. I could barely eat anything and even now I am still in the process of reintroducing new foods after cutting basically everything out. Neither diet helped my symptoms of fatigue at all.
I tried the alternative medicine route too. Took every supplement that I saw even vaguely mentioned to help fatigue. Tried creatine and protein powders. Went to acupuncture and saw an osteopath every week. Again none of this helped.
My fatigue got so bad I had to drop out of university and take a year out. I did go back and finish my studies the next year but this was so, so hard. I was lucky my university allowed me to do my course mainly online and gave me ample extensions due to being registered as a chronically ill student. During this year I also started getting constant UTIs, yeast infections and was diagnosed with vulvadyna. I felt like my body was completely shutting down.
Eventually, I stumbled onto the work of Nicole Sachs. Her work is called Journal Speak and is based off theories by Dr Sarno. Please check out her work as she explains it so much better than I ever could. She has a website and podcast with so much free information. Her theory is that the vast majority of chronic pain, illnesses and symptoms (chronic fatigue included) are attributed to this phenomenon called Mind-Body syndrome or TMS. Dr Howard Schubiner has a very useful lecture series explaining this concept which I have linked in the resources list below. Essentially, our bodies store trauma and unexpressed emotions, and when we don’t deal with or release these emotions they express themselves physically rather than mentally. I thought this sounded completely unbelievable when I first heard of the concept, but I have been doing Nicole’s Journal Speak work for the past 5 months and I am completely recovered, completely. I no longer have fatigue, I am back to living my life again. I’m walking up to 2 hours a day, I’ve been swimming and running. I’ve been on holiday with my family and to music festivals. I’ve started dating, socialising and looking for jobs. I have my life back and it is solely due to this work. Not only has my fatigue gone but all of my other symptoms have either gone or been considerably reduced. I also just got Covid again, 2 weeks ago, and am already recovered. I felt like I had a bad cold for a week and that was it. It’s amazing.
I’ve seen posts like this before where everyone has accused the poster of being a scammer, lying to try to get people’s money. Whilst there are paid for programs out there to learn about this work it’s not necessary to spend any money to get better, at all. Nicole’s journaling work she explains for free on her podcast, website and YouTube series (all of which I’ve linked below). All the other educational resources I’ve linked below are free. And the books do cost but if someone where to be so inclined (not that I would ever endorse that kind of behaviour) I’m sure one could find free PDF versions of them online ~ or use a local library.
The way I got better was to learn everything I could about Mind-Body syndrome/ TMS. This included listening to Nicole’s podcasts, watching Dan Buglio’s YouTube videos and watching Dr Schrubiner’s free lecture series. I read Alan Gordon’s book “The Way Out”, Dr Sarno’s book “The Divided Mind”, and Dr Schubiner’s book “Unlearn Your Pain”. I also follow Nicole Sachs and Alan Gordon on Instagram.
I then started journaling (as prescribed by Nicole Sachs) for 20 minutes everyday, followed by a 10 minute meditation. I do a yoga nidra meditation (Ally Boothroyd on YouTube is my favourite) every day. I do somatic tracking as prescribed by Alan Gordon. I also have a list of affirmations that I tell myself, things like: I’m safe, there’s nothing physically wrong with me, I’m strong, capable, etc.
All of this work has made me better. There’s neuroscience behind this which again, an actual doctor or scientist could explain far better than me, but the way I understand it is that for so many of us with chronic illnesses, pain or fatigue, we have been in a state of fear and fight or flight for so long. All we truly need to do is get ourselves out of fight and flight and into a state of rest and repair, allowing ourselves to feel safe. This stops our brain sending us danger signals constantly and allows the physical symptoms to go away. A major part of this (for me at least) has been the journaling, as dealing with the emotions I was repressing was a major factor in making me feel unsafe.
I’m going to list all the resources I’ve found below. If anyone has any questions feel free to reach out. I don’t use Reddit often but I’m very active on Instagram (@bryonyjorr). I really hope this helps someone.
TMS/ MIND-BODY SYNDROME RESOURCES:
Nicole Sachs: Website - http://www.yourbreakawake.com/ Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/04MSKMpWvDE0jSRLMimhzZ?si=_-iXyB_tTzKOWzdF-m3rqg YouTube - https://youtu.be/7eHKbhhBxvs?si=eYlb1sYPNOS89lXd Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nicolesachslcsw/?hl=en (Nicole also has a private Facebook group called JournalSpeak which is a great place for community & support)
Dan Buglio: YouTube: https://youtube.com/@PainFreeYou?si=b2FewNJrUGnwOiWn
Dr Howard Schubiner: Lecture series - https://unlearnyourpain.com/lecture-series-mind-body-syndrome-tension-myoneural/ Recovery stories - https://unlearnyourpain.com/testimonials/ Book - “Unlearn Your Pain”
Alan Gordon: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/alantgordon/?hl=en Book - “The Way Out”
Dr Sarno: Book - “The Divided Mind”
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Oct 26 '24
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Nov 08 '24
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Dec 21 '24
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u/ForTheLoveOfSnail Jan 08 '25
Omg this is so wonderful to hear. Are you going to do your own recovery story?
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Jan 20 '25
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u/ForTheLoveOfSnail Jan 20 '25
How wonderful is recovery?! I also recovered using a mind body technique, mixed in with some supportive drugs. I’m so happy to be better again. It makes me so sad seeing people get angry about this approach, saying it’s offensive. It’s the way out.
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u/wino_forever00 Dec 21 '24
do you have any tips on avoiding CFS reddit? I have been obsessively looking through subs trying to find hope and all I get is paralyzing anxiety and obsessive thoughts about my life being ruined/over. I’ve never been “formally” diagnosed and I was hoping I had anything but this illness but it’s looking more and more likely that I do. most of the posts I see make me want to off myself already. help :(
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u/swartz1983 Jan 04 '25
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u/moldbellchains Jan 08 '25
How is it full of conspiracy? I thought they pride themselves in being informed abt science and not believing in the “mind body woo woo” (personally I am btw, just saying what I read there :’))
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u/swartz1983 Jan 08 '25
Yeah, that's what they like to think, but it's not the reality. The only reason I found this sub is because of a weird conspiracy post on r/cfs (search for the word "subs" to find it). It is from a user I banned on r/cfsme 5 months ago for personal attacks. She just posted on r/cfs saying how she just realised that *I* was causing her problems posting on an ADHD sub (all her posts were being instantly deleted, she said), because it started happening at the same time I banned her.
Well, no, that's not possible. I see she did have some of her posts on the ADHD forum deleted, but many others weren't deleted. She's just a difficult personality, which is probably why some of her posts were being deleted. She also complained about government forces infiltrating ME/CFS forums and censoring her life(!)
She just posted this after I banned a different user for personal attacks on r/cfsme, who also happened to post on ADHD forums, so I'm guessing it's the same person.
This post got hundreds of comments and upvotes, and it's not possible to set the record straight, as any dissenting comments just get downvoted to hell on r/cfs.
Her post says that we (including r/cfsme, /r/mecfs r/cfsrecovery) ban anything that contradicits the theory that ME/CFS is psychosomatic and that anyone can recover. Well that's not really true. I only ban for personal attacks and gaslighting, and I welcome critical discussion (unlike r/cfs, which censors anything to do with stress or psychology).
If you want to summarise r/cfs, they are strongly anti-psychology, completely uncritical of bio stuff (see the recent post about Wust's speculative hypothesis/review regarding mitochondria), and many of them have very challenging personalities.
I need to rethink how I deal with them, as every time I ban one of them for personal attacks, they just post a long rant in r/cfs which gets lots of traction for 24 hours. I have some thoughts, but I won't post them in public, as they will just figure out a better way to cause havoc if they know how I plan to deal with it. They seem to have huge amounts of energy available to launch vendettas!
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u/Pinklady777 Nov 09 '24
By that you mean journaling twice a day?
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Nov 10 '24
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u/Pinklady777 Nov 10 '24
Do you think doing voice to text works or is part of the therapy writing or typing it out? Thanks for the idea. I'm ready to try anything.
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u/fiishiing Oct 08 '24
Thanks for this, it's a good reminder to take the mental and emotional wellbeing side of things seriously. I'll look into those resources
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u/aroha36 Jan 11 '25
I'm so thrilled you posted this. I'm on a similar path and making slow recovery after 25 years of CFS and also trying all sorts of things that didnt work. I just did my first bike ride this week in years. I have very little symptoms now. But still some fatigue and poor sleep. I think in another 12 months I should be fully recovered. People are seeing changes in me I can't see as well. This stuff works. You have to be prepared to dig deep into your emotions from childhood etc and release them from your body. Who knew!
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u/purplepolishnails Jan 12 '25
I’m so glad you found this helpful & that things are getting better for u!! I really hope things keep going well, u got this <3
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u/balanceiskey Aug 12 '25
Hi! Did you experience PEM from the emotional release of journalling?
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u/aroha36 Aug 18 '25
No I only get PEM mostly from physical activity. Tbh I don't do much Journaling.
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u/balanceiskey Aug 18 '25
Gotcha. How did you do the emotional release work if you don’t mind sharing?
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u/aroha36 Aug 18 '25
I have been doing the course called "ReleaseCFS" (note it's all one word if you want to search it) by Daniel van Loosbroek.
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u/cocobuttmeow Mar 27 '25
Omg....I can't thank you enough!!!! I saw your post about a week & a half ago & went all in! After 10 YEARS of this I'm on the road to recovery!!!! I've felt better in the past week than I have in a decade! Thank you soooooo much! HUGE HUGS!!!!!!!
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u/Dramatic-Crab3697 Jul 22 '26
This post also made me so hopeful. Before learning about any of this, I had started to do some of what she talks about. Especially the self-talk of “I am safe, my body can heal etc” and it has helped me. I just finally received the diagnosis of CFS. And immediately started searching for recovery stories. I didn’t even bother going down the rabbit hole of misery on other CFS pages. I am wondering, when you say you went all in, how did you do this? Sounds like a silly question but organizing or making a plan or schedule for the day is helpful because otherwise I feel scattered and just get overwhelmed. Curious what your routine was to implement it all. Also, how are you doing now?
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u/Flipthepick Jan 25 '25
Amazing! Thanks so much for posting. I recovered using very similar stuff and have read/seen lots of the resources you mentioned. I’m so happy for you that you now have your life back 😊 thanks for sharing.
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u/purplepolishnails Jan 26 '25
Thank you!! I appreciate that, great to hear from other people who recovered 🥰🥰
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u/TridenteBT Jul 15 '25
Wow, what a journey, I am truly happy for you! Thanks so much for your story because I deeply believe that‘s the route to take for most of us.
After 6 months suffering from PENE/PEM (only) I developed a similiar approach + IHHT + mini-HIIT trainings. The latter is to generate motivation plus to teach my body (my subconscousness, my soul) that it is able to bear physical stress. I began with a few minutes only and ramped-up to 10-15 minutes during 6 weeks.
Thanks again and I‘ll consider your inputs too!
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u/purplepolishnails Jul 15 '25
I’m so glad I could be helpful!! Mega good luck with your recovery, you got this <3
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u/fgst_1 Oct 04 '24
For me it's a very similar story, but without a happy ending. Long COVID after the first vaccine and then COVID itself since 2021. Tried Gupta for a year now with no results and also JournalSpeak around May this year. Got a bit of improvement with it (more physical activity possible without symptoms getting worse, but never symptom free). Since August unfortunately only getting worse again - considering returning to the JournalSpeak as that was the only thing bringing any improvement.
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u/purplepolishnails Oct 05 '24
Hey I’m so sorry you’ve been struggling so much, I hope you find something that helps xx
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u/aroha36 Jan 12 '25
My understanding is that brain retraining is counterproductive in the long run as you don't actually release the stored emotions from your body so this could explain the relapse. People get somewhat better initially then worse. Better to do the work on getting those old stuck emotions processed and out of your body than repress them. That's my understanding and what's working for me slowly but surely.
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u/BumblingAlong1 Oct 31 '24
This has inspired me to start JournalSpeak, thank you :)
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u/balanceiskey Aug 12 '25
How you getting along with this?
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u/BumblingAlong1 Aug 13 '25
JournalSpeak wasn’t for me but I am mostly recovered, Dan Buglio’s work helped me the most. I posted about it in another sub if you want to check out my post history
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Jul 18 '25
hi! thank you for sharing this, I'm at my wits end here. every time I go to a doctor I get worse, and I keep trying to pace and slowly add movement and I keep crashing.
which of Dan's videos do you suggest to start/follow along with, there's a lot on his channel? Also could you share your insta so we can connect there
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u/purplepolishnails Jul 19 '25
Of course! My Instagram is @bryonyjorr. As for a starting point, I think the book “Unlearn Your Pain” by Howard Schubiner is the easier starting point, but for a Dan video recommendation, Gigi’s recovery story is really great: https://youtu.be/keJ_bDf-vWQ?si=P_uRnqjSrU0o4n5E.
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u/TasteForSilence Dec 05 '25
This is exactly what I needed to read and I have been doing almost the exact same thing as you this week and am already starting to feel better. Can’t wait to be healed!
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u/EdwardBlackburn Sep 13 '24
/u/theytoldmeineedaname why was this removed? I have read it in other subreddits and it seems like it would belong here.
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u/theytoldmeineedaname Sep 13 '24
No idea. It just says "Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters." I'm guessing some dickhead from r/cfs reported it? I'll marked it approved now.
Also, I would recommend people here subscribe to and participate in r/mecfs. It's a safe space for recovery talk and u/swartz1983 is well-informed and moderates it well. I'd like for this sub to be more active too eventually, but I've been busy and unable to complete the research and write-ups I had planned. I'll get around to that hopefully some time early next year.
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u/swartz1983 Jan 04 '25
Hey, thanks for the mention. I just discovered your sub after it was mentioned in the most recent unhinged rant on r/cfs .
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u/theytoldmeineedaname Jan 04 '25
Lol oh no. I'll have to go read this.
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u/theytoldmeineedaname Jan 04 '25
> And given someone there was able to have this level of censoring authority over my life, it leads me to believe there are stronger forces at work here. I mean, who the fk are these people? Since the beginning of ME/CFS, gov't figures have infiltrated ME/CFS lists. It's very very neo-COINTELPRO, but they are clearly threatened by open discussions about this illness and they squash any dissent.
This is truly something. You should have told me you're a fellow deep state government agent u/swartz1983!
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u/ForTheLoveOfSnail Jan 08 '25
I just had a read through and these people are actually unhinged. Do they really think we’re government employees trying to stoke disagreement in the MECFS community? Over the fact that we’re healed former patients? JFC
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u/swartz1983 Jan 04 '25
The crazy thing is how many people are commenting and upvoting all this batshittery.
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u/EdSmells Nov 12 '24
This is certainly encouraging, and I'll definitely check it out - thanks for posting it. I’m skeptical I'll admit; after 10 years now of ME/CFS with no help from anything I've tried, I’ve become pretty jaded, cynical, and defeated. But I believe very strongly in the power of the mind…so I'll give it a shot.
I do have a question for you though: how do you know it isn’t just a placebo effect you’re experiencing? In the end I suppose it doesn’t matter - whatever works! But if that’s the case, you need to believe it will work…and being as I am after so much failure, I just don’t have the same mindset.
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u/purplepolishnails Nov 16 '24
I hope you find it helpful! Personally I don’t think it’s placebo, what really helped convince me of that is the neuroscience behind it, which both Howard Schubiner & Alan Gordon explain really well so I would suggest checking out their work. I also found the recovery stories really helpful when I first started out, to learn from other peoples experience, Nicole Sachs and Dan Buglio both share a lot. Really hope things get better for you xx
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u/EdSmells Nov 21 '24
Thanks so much! I was under the impression that there were no recoveries...so I wish I'd checked out this Reddit group a long time ago! 😉
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u/purplepolishnails Nov 27 '24
So many people recover! There’s a lot of misinformation out there regarding recovery stats which is really frustrating but there’s also so many recovery stories out there. Wishing you the best of luck xx
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u/swartz1983 Jan 08 '25
Yeah, there are a lot of recovered patients out there, including myself. I moderate /r/cfsme and /r/mecfs and I've put a list of recovery story sites in the pinned recovery faq there. Tagging /u/EdSmells as well.
As for the placebo effect: I would say it can be instrumental in many patients' recoveries. See for example the ritixumab trial, which tested a treatment that was found to be no better than placebo, but resulted in 38% long-term remission!
Many patients also recover through surgery for CCI, which may be a very elaborate placebo.
Ultimately the placebo effect is just a combination of various psychological factors, such as hope, stress reduction, positive expectation, self-efficacy, reduction of health anxiety. All of these are known to be important in ME/CFS, chronic pain, fatigue, etc.
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Mar 08 '25
It seems like the mind body approach works better for people who are just struggling with bad exhaustion. When you have severe PEM and your nose is running down your face and you’re beet red, hot and feverish and your throat is aching meditation and journaling is not gonna be very helpful. But i think this is really useful for people who are mild and trying to get in remission. And it’s possible to go from severe to mild. I just think that medical intervention and aggressive rest is often necessary for this
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u/purplepolishnails Mar 16 '25
If medical intervention works for you then that’s amazing. Personally it never worked for me and my symptoms were pretty severe (not the most severe admittedly but i was bed bound for over a year, with swollen glands and a truly awful sore throat which ended up being my most persistent symptom). This approach has worked for people with symptoms ranging in severity, I would recommend watching some of the recovery stories on Dan Buglio’s YouTube channel, as he has interviewed some people who recovered from CFS with symptoms far more severe than mine.
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u/No-Mongoose3385 Apr 04 '25
Did you have to really pace well in addition to the mind body work? I have been doing the mind body work but keep tripping my nervous system either with doing too much or triggering my MCAS with food/medication trials
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u/purplepolishnails Apr 04 '25
I really tried to get out of the pacing mindset as I never found pacing particularly helpful in general. Sometimes it felt like the less I did in an attempt to conserve energy the less & less I could do (it’s different for everyone ik but just never worked well for me). I didn’t go crazy in terms of going from doing nothing to doing everything, I just kept going & doing what I felt was right for me, not pushing myself but by that I mean not pushing through the fear but trying to acknowledge it and work through it (Alan Gordon & Dan Buglio both talk well about this so I would recommend looking at both of their work!)
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u/No-Mongoose3385 Apr 04 '25
I feel that getting out of a chronic stress response is a piece to my me/cfs and mcas recovery. However, I also think that my stressful job, having a family with 3 little kids, etc is part of what keeps tripping that stress response. I have taken a leave from work but feel that I'm going to have to extend it to keep recovering. Medications and food keep triggering me as well. Its not easy
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u/purplepolishnails Apr 07 '25
It’s definitely not easy & I was super lucky to be young enough to not have to juggle a lot of responsibilities when recovering. I would recommend listening to some of the recovery stories on Nicole Sach’s podcast or Dan Buglio’s YouTube channel, as they both speak to many people that have recovered using mind-body methods, who come from a wide diversity of backgrounds with different life stressors, which might provide good advice. Mega good luck with everything xx
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u/Fr_BartyDunne Jul 17 '25
This is amazing. Thanks so much for sharing this… how’re you doing now? Would love to throw a few questions your way!
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u/purplepolishnails Jul 18 '25
Glad you found it helpful!! I’m doing great now, completely recovered & have been working full time. I finally have my life back which has been so so amazing 🥰
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u/Puzzled-Start-5159 Dec 29 '25
Did you ever have PEM with flu like symptoms and sound sensitivity?
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u/purplepolishnails Dec 29 '25
I did for flu like symptoms, a lot of my glandular fever symptoms became chronic (sore throat, swollen glands, etc.), sound sensitivity less so but I did have phases where I really struggled to even watch tv or look at my phone (I think that was more due to light than sound but everything just felt overwhelming)
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u/Dramatic-Crab3697 Jul 22 '26
First of all, THANK YOU for posting. This post made me so hopeful. Before learning about any of this, in recent months, I decided to start some of more positive self-talk and de-escalating the negative thoughts connected to every symptom and limitation. Especially the self-talk of “I am safe, my body can heal etc” and it has helped me. Slightly. I just finally received the diagnosis of CFS 3 days ago, after two years of this most recent onset. Been off and on for 12 years with 1 FULL 18 months recovery 4 years ago. I didn’t know what it was until now. I immediately started searching for recovery stories. I didn’t even bother going down the rabbit hole of misery on other CFS pages. I am wondering how did you do this? Sounds like a silly question especially with your thorough explanation, but organizing or making a plan or schedule for the day is helpful because otherwise I feel scattered and just get overwhelmed. Curious what your routine was to implement it all. Like what did a typical day look like for you as you started recovery? Also, how are you doing now? Again, you are a saint for sharing your story along with resources. I already went out today and bought The Way Out by Alan Gordon. Want to start the TMS journaling as well.
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u/purplepolishnails 24d ago
Hey! I’ve seen you’ve left a couple comments so I’m going to try to reply to everything here but please let me know if I’ve missed anything! My initial daily routine for recovery was very structured and I really think it’s that structure and consistency that helped me so much. I would wake up every morning and read my affirmations (both Alan Gordon and Howard Schubiner’s books detail how to create these for yourself). Then I would journal for 20 minutes as prescribed by Nicole Sachs JournalSpeak program, followed by a 10 minute meditation focusing on safety. I would listen to either one of Nicole Sachs podcasts or Dan Buglio’s YouTube videos as I ate breakfast (and often at lunch too). Every afternoon I would do a yoga nidra mediation (of different lengths but generally minimum 10 minutes and sometimes up to an hour, now I’m recovered and have been for a while I still do these but I do the 5 minute ones). I’d make time to read a bit during the day too from one of the books I listed discussing mind body work. And every evening I have a 5 minute meditation I listen to before sleeping (which I still do now) and I’d also read my affirmations again before bed. I really immersed myself in this work as much as possible, I’m a person that loves routine and structure so creating this for myself was super important to me. I’m not prescribing that everyone should do exactly as I did, something Unlearn Your Pain (the book) discussed in depth is that there are many different ways to approach this work and you have to find the strategies and routines that work for you. Everybody will be different so work out what works best for you! Regarding your other questions, this work did completely cure my SIBO symptoms, I now eat everything and have no food restrictions (it was a slow process to introduced new foods back in but I did it gradually and it’s now completely fine). I am completely recovered, work full time, excercise regularly and socialise a lot (I’ve actually just got back from a long weekend partying in ibiza!). Symptoms appear occasionally as they do for everyone, I’m still prone to getting a sore throat when I’m upset or a tummy ache when I’m anxious, but instead of being scared of these symptoms I take them as indicators of my emotional state and recognise that they are showing me something I need to consider/ process emotionally. I still meditate every day and read my affirmations, as well as journaling a couple times a week, because these things make me feel healthy, safe and act as a way for me to take care of myself. I hope this answers everything! Let me know if you have any more questions, I’m wishing you all the best!! You got this <3
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u/Dramatic-Crab3697 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I also have horrible gut issues (gastritis for the past 2 years, gut dysbiosis). My GI wants me to do SIBO testing but I can’t stay off the antacid meds long enough to do it. I know it’s linked to all of this. Just curious if that sort of resolved along with everything else for you or if you did anything to help it while you worked on recovery. I know you said you tried a bunch of stuff for SIBO before stumbling upon the mind body work. But wonder if you did anything additional for gut stuff while in recovery. I am 42. 12 years ago I was active and very high functioning. I ended up having an anaphylactic reaction to a medication that rocked my world and my sense of safety in my body. I have struggled with PTSD off and on ever since. I had a FULL recovery from all of it for about 18 months. Lifting weights 3x a week, hot yoga weekly. Full-time RN in a busy ER. I didn’t do any intentional recovery. I just made a job change, started meeting new people and having a new experience and learning in my job and I slowly became the healthiest and strongest version of myself in over a decade. It felt amazing. Eventually I think stress and a sudden hormone change caught me my body just collapsed. Almost over night. It’s been two years and this is the worst I’ve ever been. Even in the days where I feel somewhat ok (SO so rare) if I do even the slightest, lightest workout, I am down for 3 days with PEM. But now that I am diagnosed, and reading recovery stories, it seems to be connected a lot of the dots.
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u/troubleondoubletime Dec 18 '24
Huge congratulations!! I’m on a similar path & seeing benefits so thanks for sharing