Out of the 30 accounts with a clear outcome; 4 more don’t say how it went.
How it went
Did it last?
- 2 of 34 said the benefit wore off.
- 1 of 34 needed to keep doing it to stay well.
Read from what people wrote. A story that ends without a follow-up counts as lasting, so treat these as minimums.
| Outcome described | Accounts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Full recovery | 16 | 53% |
| Near-full | 6 | 20% |
| Substantial | 8 | 27% |
| Partial | 0 | 0% |
| Relapsed | 0 | 0% |
| No benefit | 0 | 0% |
| Outcome unclear | 4 | — |
By how ill people were
| Severity at worst | How it went | n | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate | 2 | 50% | |
| Severe | 14 | 71% | |
| Very severe | 10 | 80% |
8 accounts don’t say how ill the person was.
Who published these accounts
50% of these accounts are on pages that sell this treatment or a program around it. Those pages publish their successes; compare the independent row.
All 34 accounts
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224: The Quickest Way to Get Better from Chronic Illness - Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD
Credits brain retraining and mind body. Howard had ME/CFS and is listed among the recovery accounts. Expert; not a personal recovery per his bio page.
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A Recovery Story: From Life-Altering Chronic Symptoms to Living a Full Life
Credits trauma and somatic work, JournalSpeak, brain retraining and graded exercise. Steph was ill 2y with very-severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. 90% bedbound; Sarno/JournalSpeak trauma journaling.
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The liminal space between illness and recovery
Credits brain retraining and pain reprocessing. Amy was ill 5y with severe long COVID and is described as almost fully recovered. 95-98% recovered; occasional fatigue and brain fog.
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Six Things I Did NOT Do to Heal
Credits trauma and somatic work and JournalSpeak. Ariel was ill 2y with severe long COVID and reports a substantial improvement. Rejected diets, supplements and GET; symptoms mostly gone.
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221: A Doctor's Recovery Blueprint for ME/CFS, Long COVID and Chronic Pain - Dr. David Schechter, MD
Credits TMS and mind body. David had long COVID and is listed among the recovery accounts. MD/TMS expert; both conditions named, ambiguous.
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208: Bedbound With PPPD: Symptoms Became the Solution - Sam Miller's Recovery Story
Credits somatic tracking. Sam had severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. PPPD (dizziness disorder), not ME/CFS or long covid.
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Young athlete: from very severe ME/CFS to full recovery
Credits brain retraining and JournalSpeak. Jay was ill 8mo with very-severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. 97% bedbound; now competes in freestyle skiing.
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits Journal Speak, Curable App and CFS School. Kayla was ill 3 years with ME/CFS and is described as almost fully recovered. Post-viral CFS and fibromyalgia; "90% recovered".
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits somatic tracking and emotional expression. Jake was ill 5 years with moderate ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Comorbid long covid and POTS.
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits brain retraining, somatic, TMS and trauma therapy. Sylvia was ill 6 years to improve with severe ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Works part-time now, no restrictions.
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Hope Rooted in Biology: What Helped Us Recover from ME/CFS and Long Covid
Credits pacing, somatic tracking and yoga. Kate was ill 13 years with severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Roundup post profiling 20 people; entry 1 of 20.
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109: The Emotional Work That Leads to Chronic Illness Recovery (Nicole Sachs)
Credits JournalSpeak and TMS. Nicole had ME/CFS and is listed among the recovery accounts. JournalSpeak founder/therapist; own history not stated here.
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Alisha's Recovery Story
Credits trauma and somatic work and brain retraining. Alisha was ill 3y with severe long COVID and is described as fully recovered. Couch-bound 1.5 years; now a paid TMS coach.
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I Finally Found Answers and Turned ME/CFS Around - Jeff's Story
Credits CBT or psychological work and mind body. Jeff was ill 7y with ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Cites Sarno's Divided Mind, Optimum Health Clinic.
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Life Restored: My Recovery from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
Credits brain retraining and pain reprocessing. Fiona was ill 14y with very-severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Used Curable app; disclaims financial tie; recovered 5+ years.
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My long covid recovery recap: the timeline and tools
Ariel Conn's recovery centered on mind-body approaches: Claritin as one of only two things that helped in her first 18 months, then somatic meditations, Nicole Sachs' JournalSpeak journaling method starting December 2021, somatic and Internal Family Systems…
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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: My 13 Year Crash to Cure Story
Credits trauma and somatic work, CBT or psychological work and somatic tracking. Rebecca was ill 13y with severe ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Broadcast journalist; Sarno/TMS work; now sells coaching.
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Nina Bosselaar
Nina spent about two years trying physiotherapy, occupational therapy, haptotherapy, osteotherapy and a multidisciplinary rehab program without success before shifting to a Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) mind-body approach centered on expressive journaling,…
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Leon Williams
Leon Williams recovered using a mind-body/neuroplasticity approach rooted in Dr. John Sarno's Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) framework, practicing somatic tracking meditation, expressive writing, breathwork and general meditation, with gardening as a…
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Esther
She recovered after listening to a Nicole Sachs podcast and then beginning expressive writing about her feelings, which she says produced an 80% drop in symptoms that same day, followed two weeks later by starting Dr. Howard Schubiner's Mind Body Program and…
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Jennifer
Jennifer combined three weeks of lymphatic drainage physiotherapy (started June 2022) with a mind-body/nervous-system retraining approach drawn from Alan Gordon's book The Way Out, the Curable app, Annemarieke Fleming's Dutch fatigue book Je vermoeidheid te…
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Michelle
Michelle saw more than ten specialists and tried extensive medical treatment: beta blockers, the migraine drug Ubrelvy, meclizine for dizziness, two rounds of prednisone, B12 shots for neuropathy, and Paxlovid taken months after her initial infection, plus…
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It was a great revelation and relief to discover that I had the power to heal myself
Began following Nicole Sachs' free "Healing Yourself" videos and her paid "Freedom from Chronic Pain" course, alongside Dr Howard Schubiner's "Unlearn Your Pain" resources, substituting "pain" for "symptoms" as he worked through them from late October 2022,…
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Helen
Helen recovered through Mickel Therapy -- weekly hour-long sessions by Skype starting in September 2020 -- alongside the Curable app, meditation, breathwork, yoga, Trauma and Tension Release Exercises (TRE), and daily gratitude-diary journaling; no drugs or…
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Gary
Gary's recovery is credited to Nicole Sachs' free YouTube series "Healing Yourself" (Parts 1-4) followed by her paid course Freedom from Chronic Pain, plus Dr. Howard Schubiner's mind-body material at unlearnyourpain.com, applying pain-reprocessing…
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CFS recovery success stories on YouTube
Credits CBT or psychological work and somatic tracking. Nick had ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Sarno-style mind-body case; forum doubted the diagnosis.
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Matt Sibert
Matt Sibert credits reading Dr. John Sarno's books The Divided Mind and The Mindbody Prescription, then practicing somatic tracking, somatic meditations, expressive writing/journaling, breathing exercises and general meditation, after an earlier…
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Amy Engkjer
She combined a concussion protocol (limiting phone use and conversation), neurofeedback, a five-hour NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) session, EMDR, physical therapy, shiatsu, daily cold showers, an anti-inflammatory diet, meditation, and journaling,…
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I realized there was nothing spectacularly wrong with my body. My fear of never getting better had kept me from getting better!
Esther's breakthrough came after hearing a podcast featuring psychotherapist Nicole Sachs and "Lieke from Amsterdam," which led her to journal about her emotions and read books by Dr. Sarno and Nicole Sachs, following roughly eight months of illness that…
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Is Lyme Disease Curable? Katina Makris' Story
Credits CBT or psychological work and mentor mindset. Katina was ill 10y with severe ME/CFS and reports a substantial improvement. Chronic Lyme plus fibromyalgia; mindset shift.
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Dr. Howard Schubiner interview/companion page
Credits brain retraining and mind body. Howard had ME/CFS and is listed among the recovery accounts. MSU clinical professor/expert, not a patient himself.
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Danny reclaimed his health from CFS and chronic pain (a TMS recovery story)
Credits TMS and mind body. Danny had ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Explicitly framed as a TMS recovery story.
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Payton Foeller's Story
She credits low-dose naltrexone (LDN, though she says it "helped somewhat, not a gamechanger"), talk therapy, brainspotting therapy, and mind-body work drawing on Dr. John Sarno's TMS framework, polyvagal theory, trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness,…
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Defogging My Life: Fiona's Journey With Chronic Fatigue/ME
Credits brain retraining. Fiona was ill 14y with very-severe ME/CFS and is described as fully recovered. Same Fiona story repurposed as Curable's vendor marketing.