Recovery Stories: Jan's ME Recovery Story

In January 2000 I caught a virus which developed into ME. Most of the time I felt as though I had 'flu - high temperature, weakness and painful joints.

Although I was always tired sleep was very elusive; entirely sleepless nights were frequent.

My body over-produced adrenaline, which created panics and a constant feeling of anxiety.

A good day was when I could lift a glass of water with one hand. It was not uncommon for me to have to wait an hour after making dinner before I could eat it because I could not lift the fork to my mouth.

I could not make phone calls because my brain worked to slowly. During one phase I could not make out people's words - it all sounded like oobleoobleooble.

The only people I saw were my carer, my osteopath and my acupuncturist.

I attended one of Julie's Process training courses in late October 2008.

The training takes 2-3 hours on each of three consecutive mornings. After the second morning I had lunch out for the first time since I'd become ill in 2000. The day after the training I went out for about 6 hours shopping and had lunch out again, and enjoyed it all enormously.

Over the next week I sawed wood with my power saw (heavy), drilled holes with my electric drill (also heavy) and hung shelves.

I have driven a car again for the first time in 8 years.

One of the best things is being able to look forward and plan things; when I was ill I couldn't even plan for the next hour because I never knew how weak or panicky I would be from hour to hour. Now I can go out whenever I want to.

Julie, my instructor on the course, whom I had known before I became ill, is a very kind, supportive lady. I'm not sure how much credibility I would have given the Process had I not known her for 10 years because there's so much snake juice on the market. Knowing her, I couldn't conceive of her offering me something with so much confidence unless she was sure of it herself.

I enjoyed the training, which is easy and quite light-hearted. It's also very encouraging because one starts to feel a benefit pretty much immediately. I also found it very helpful to be able to refer back to Julie after the training - ME is brilliant at undermining self-confidence and it was great for the first few weeks of practising the Process on my own to be able to have her support.

I absolutely recommend it.