When I was suffering with CFS/ME I had never heard of anyone recovering. I eventually did find stories from people who had got their lives back it filled me with hope, plus a reasonable amount of scepticism! Each time someone’s journey is told it could help other people have faith that recovery is possible.
After 10 years pushing through with post viral fatigue, I went to bed with a runny nose and just didn’t wake up. I slept for weeks and eventually woke up to realise I was bedridden, unable to move, except to crawl to the toilet.
Hi – It’s Kate here, from the UK. I have always been a trier. I tried hard at school, at Uni, at work, at losing weight, at baking the best cakes, at being a good friend, at going above and beyond… you get the picture! I was always wired, always on the go, never having time and always stressed about it! When all this trying eventually caught up with me, I was working three jobs and volunteering on four teams at my church.
From August 2017 until December 2018, I was bedridden and completely dependent on care. I was unable to stand upright or eat by myself. How did I get there?
It is like a zipper that you draw up slowly, tooth by tooth, until it is whole once more. This is a process one must learn and practice as one goes forward. You must create new experiences through success. This has nothing to do with ‘thinking yourself well again’, but rather understanding yourself well.
I was ill for a whole chapter of my life, which I simply cannot bear to describe. But today I am well.
My name is Lotte, and I am 35 years old. I climb high mountains, I swim in the sea no matter the weather, I play with my son, I work, I hang out with friends, I sing, go to the movies and to concerts, to late-night dinners, and I love cooking and having guests over. I LIVE!
My despair was overwhelming. The doctors gave me no hope of being able to recover from ME. On the contrary I remember a specialist saying: “You must lie down and rest, maybe for the rest of your life.”
In this episode of her very inspiring Youtube and podcast series The Puzzle of Healing, Sophie Helbig interviews May Elin Game and Torill Sorkmo about their recovery from ME/CFS and Recovery Norway.
The hardest thing for me was that I had no idea how long I would be sick. Maybe the rest of my life. I wish that Google, the information I received and what patients were generally told could to a greater extent convey that one can actually get well.
At Haukeland Hospital, I was told that I had contracted a serious neurological disease, for which there was no cure.
The basic summary of the cause of my illness is a familiar one. As far as I believe, the cause was burnout, plus the trigger of a nasty flu bug at the same time. From this I never properly recovered, and things quickly spiralled out of control. However, looking back at my life with hindsight, it is easy to see that there was already a foundation of issues which were affecting my health, and paving the way for a future illness.
I wish someone would have given me the knowledge that I have today, that someone would have normalised my condition 13 years ago and said: “You’ll be fine. We have a support network that will help you get back on your feet.” Instead, I was left alone, left to stumble through an overwhelming amount of advice on what to do when you’re a CFS/ME sufferer. It cost me 13 years of my life and my children missed out on their teenage years. At this conference organised by Catosenteret rehabilitation centre, Anette tells her story. It’s a story that touched many people.
Since I got well again I have completed my medical studies within the normal timeframe and then worked as a doctor, full time, including night shifts of 19 hours, with no more fatigue than any of my colleagues, before making the decisive choice that life is too short to carry on with the hectic lifestyle that I was used to.
I have always been a girl who enjoyed being active. I went to the US for a year after high school and worked as an au pair. When I came back home in the summer of 2016 it only took me a couple of weeks before I started working again. For almost three months I even had two jobs.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalopathy (CFS/ME) is a major health problem which is often seen as a rather puzzling and mysterious illness, for which there is no cure or treatment. However, having suffered from ME for 17 years, I found myself recovered to full health in just four days, at a treatment course run by Dr. Bjarte Stubhaug at the Clinic of Stress Medicine. This is my story.
Prior to getting sick, I worked for housing trust supporting men with mental health problems. It was a really interesting job and I enjoyed working with the residents.
We all expect to get well when we first become sick, but as more and more questions are left unanswered, as weeks of illness turn into months and as months turn into years, it’s quite normal to lose hope that you will get your life back.
That’s what it was like for me.
In the first part of 2016 I was a social and active 20-year-old girl. I really enjoyed working as a personal trainer, I had a boyfriend, was frequently working out and generally happy about my life.
I got ill in 2008 and got the ME diagnosis in 2009. At the time, I was 39 years old, divorced, had two children and was working full time. I lived an active life before this. I sat on boards, was parental contact, trained at both the fitness center and with active cycling.
The Lightning Process (LP) is a disputed topic, and most of what you read about it, is negative. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) myself. If I had believed all the negative things I read on the net, I would not have recovered.
When I was 16 years old, I lived a very normal life. I went to school, enjoyed working out and spent a lot of time with friends. After my 17th birthday, though, my life was anything but normal.
I was once one of the most severely sick people in Norway diagnosed with ME in the period between 2006 and 2009. I will give a brief account of my story, how I fell ill and how I got better and also what I think about it all today because that is actually the most interesting aspect; what I have understood today.
Sometimes we do not believe things before we can watch them unfold with our own eyes. In this unique documentary we follow Thomas Overvik step by step through his full recovery from being a severely ill, bedridden ME/CFS patient in a dark-room. The documentary is made by Randi Størseth, whose daughter also has recovered from ME/CFS.
I was in my early teens when I began to lose a lot of energy. From once being an active girl, I became a lot more passive. It took me more than ten years of struggles, illness and despair, but at last, at an age of 26, I can finally say that not only am I completely well again, but I have gained from the whole experience.
I fell ill after having had mononucleosis at upper secondary school – without knowing it. I noticed symptoms, but did not understand what was happening to me as I celebrated the end of school. This was in 2014.
It was 2008. I was 31 years old and heading full speed out into the world. I had got a job at the United Nations (UN), and prior to that I had gone at top speed most of the time. I had been in three continents in just as many months, participated in research meetings, conferences and also a high-level international choir singing competition. And now the road lead to Africa and what I had long thought of as the dream job.
I’ve noticed a significant relationship between circumstances in my life, especially things that happened in my childhood, and my health.
This is my story about how I got ME/CFS and how I managed to recover from it.
Hi, my name is Hanne and now in 2019 I am 27 years old. Hoping that my story will bring courage and help to others, I would like to share it here. From 2006 to 2008, I was one of the most severe cases of ME/CFS in Norway. However, after two and a half years of illness, I actually recovered completely. What happened to me?
My perception of the condition we refer to as ME is that there are various causes for what is then given one diagnosis. It is a process, a spiral down into unwellness from various beginning events, which is ultimately diagnosed as ME.
I will tell you what happened when I fell ill with CFS/ME and then recovered.
This is to you, you who stood by me when I was so very ill with ME. We have not spoken since. However, you, and many others, made such a difference in my life and I never really got to thank you.
It was December 2000, near the end of a two-week Christmas break that my illness began. It started off with typical flu-like symptoms – sneezing and runny nose, with the fever symptoms of feeling cold and aches and pains all over my body.
After many years of working long days and putting my body through a lot of physical and mental stress as a management consultant and athlete, I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis in December 2013.
Camilla tried everything. After seven years of serious illness, she finally discovered a way to recover completely.
I developed ME after a bout of mononucleosis in the spring of 2003. This happened at a time where all events in my life were pointing upwards.
Many years have passed, I now have several children and work as a psychologist. If there is one thing I see more and more clearly, it is how much our emotions, thoughts and relationships affect our health.
A lot of people associate me with football and the fact that I was considered one of Norway´s greatest talents. However, the most interesting thing about me today is that, because of my experiences, I am among those who are most knowledgeable about ME, chronic fatigue syndrome. This condition is often viewed as deeply mysterious. It’s not a great mystery at all to me.
One day in February 2010 I felt ill, properly knocked out. I thought it was the flu and I might be off work for a few days. I got better and returned to work. But a few days later I was ill again, and this time I didn’t recover.
And that’s why the full story has to be told, so that you can think: If this person can do it, then so can I!
When I was seventeen, I contracted mononucleosis and was really ill for months. As soon as I recovered, I went back to school full time. Being a trainee hairdresser, I would spend a lot of time on my feet, with my hands held high. It did not take long before I developed tendinitis in both arms, and my general health deteriorated, from hardly ever being unwell prior to the mononucleosis (common cold, gastroenteritis, tonsillitis), to being ill often.
My body did not recover after infectious mononucleosis in 2006. At that time, I was only 16 years old. I got worse in 2018 and was on sick leave for long periods of time. In 2012, as a 22-year-old girl, I got the ME-diagnosis (serious degree)
It was in February 1999, at the age of 55, that Nina first felt that her body did not function normally. After getting an ankle fracture in the slalom hill she got a persistent low fever and easily got sweaty and tired.