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.
I was 23 in 2013. I was travelling at least once a month; I was a student with three part-time jobs and had taken on various other duties. I was also working out and was very active.
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 got sick in the summer of 2014. I was healthy and in great physical shape, and then suddenly I was just lying there. My body had collapsed. I couldn’t for the life of me understand what was going on.
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.