3 Things that Keep you Stuck when Recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

You’ve been there.

The fatigue and overwhelming exhaustion that doesn’t get better with rest. The widespread pain that feels like unbearable aching and burning in your muscles. The brain fog that turns every attempt at thought and concentration into fuzz.

You try to keep up with your busy life but bit by bit you feel it slipping from you. You quit your job because working is now too much. You cancel social events because they’re too exhausting. You have no energy to do the dishes let alone engage with your hobbies. Grief rises like waves from time to time when you realise how much you’ve lost to illness.

You try everything. Every diet, supplement, trend and fad. But nothing works. You go to doctor after doctor only to be told that it’s all in your head and others have it worse.

You spend more and more time in bed alone in your room.

Depression creeps in.

You wonder if its even worth it to be here anymore if this is what you’re life is going to be like here on forward.

But worst of all, you feel stuck.

Stuck in the symptoms. Stuck in the pain. Stuck in the grief. Stuck in your head. Stuck in the endless cycle of pushing and crashing.

Nothing seems to work. You can’t seem to move forward. You feel like you’re spinning your wheels and going nowhere.

There are 3 things that commonly keep people with CFS/ME stuck.

1. Not Knowing What To Do

We feel overwhelmed by the endless information available and the sheer amount of work it will take to get well.

We don’t know what to do, where to start, or who to trust. The doctors, after all, have let us down.

We’re too exhausted to research. The computer screen hurts our eyes. We can’t sit up for long. And brain fog makes reading a losing battle.

2. Staying Trapped in the Push-Crash Cycle

You know how it is.

We feel a bit better and so decide to do all the things on our to-do list. But we do one thing too many and crash. It takes days or weeks to recover. We’re caught in an ongoing cycle of pushing, overdoing it, and crashing. This keeps us stuck, because as long as we are pushing and crashing we’re going to get nowhere.

3. Negative Thoughts and Beliefs

I don’t mean that you can think your way to health. Absolutely NOT!

But what I do mean is that mindset is a crucial piece of the puzzle of recovery. Negative beliefs like, “I’ll never get well”, “I deserve this,” or “All I see for my future is suffering,” keep us sick because they keep us from taking action towards recovery.

As long as we believe lies like this and get caught in negative thought spirals, we are going to stay stuck.

Identifying and working through these issues can help you to get unstuck and start moving forward in your recovery.

Recovery from ME/CFS IS possible. We just need the right help and support to do the right things at the right time.

What things are keeping you stuck in your ME/CFS recovery? We’d love to hear from you! Comment below or send us a message. Connection is healing.

xx Cait