The key was realising that my illness and relapses had all happened during times when I didn't have any work to do, usually after a period of stress

Summary

Recovered without any named clinic or formal programme, through self-directed changes — leaving a stressful job, moving out of London, moving in with his girlfriend and building his own projects — after doctors diagnosed post-viral fatigue and later irritable bowel syndrome, and an alternative therapist's ALCAT test (which he later calls "an expensive pseudoscientific scam") brought no improvement. Ill from around 1998, initially with post-flu fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, depression, anxiety, noise hypersensitivity, vertigo, irregular heartbeats, insomnia and diarrhoea, he self-describes his CFS as "moderate" in severity, managing only a day or two back at work before symptoms returned, with serious relapses in March and July 2001. He says the key was "realising that my initial illness and subsequent relapses had all happened during times when I didn't have any work to do, usually after a period of stress," and adjusting his life accordingly ended the cycle. He reports having been "completely free of symptoms for over 15 years now, living a normal life" as of this account. No further relapse is mentioned; he later published his own explanatory framework, the Persistent Burnout Theory of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, on his personal website, and became the first international member of Recovery Norway.

Symptoms mentioned

Symptoms: Anxiety & low mood, Gut problems, Muscle weakness, Sleep problems.