When you suddenly get really sick and are finding it really hard to think, let alone function.. everything can seem really complicated and you might not know where to start.
It’s ideal to have somebody experienced to guide you, but I didn’t really have that. The doctors weren’t helpful past my diagnosis of lyme, it even took going to a 3rd doctor before getting that. The first 2 said “Err I don’t know, all the tests come back negative” plus alot of doctors here don’t believe it exists.
The doctor that tested for it could only offer a year of antibiotics which I refused. He had nearly lost his license for giving alternative treatments so didn’t offer that anymore. Which is frustrating because these treatments are not only effective but have many less side effects than antibiotics.
So I was spending a huge amount of time researching, and I had quite a list of things to try. Alot of these things I brought and my table full of supplements grew, and it was already pretty big before this!
I needed guidance and I found an Ayurvedic intuitive who was able to test my list of ideas energetically to see if they would help, and give me some other recommendations. Having 2 sessions with him helped, but something was missing and he didn’t really come across like he really cared much. Eventually I found something much more effective for me, that i’ll mention in a bit.
First I want to give you some tips when you’re really impacted by chronic illness, frustrated and want to start to make some progress.
- Don’t add too many things at once!
I know it’s tempting to want to buy and use absolutely everything all at once, because you just want to get better. But take it from me, you can’t do that as it will be too much.
Especially when the illness is bad, you will inevitably get a healing/herx response to anything you take. It might be surprising how strong this is. I literally took TWO drops of three different tinctures one day and I felt it much more than I expected for the next few days.
I found out that I was pretty sensitive to alot of things and had to start really small.
I want you to know how important it is to start small and build up gradually, especially when you’re quite sick. Because it can hit you hard.
The good thing is that as you recover and get healthier you can take more at once, but that does take quite some time.
For do your research and pick ONE thing. I like to read about other peoples experiences with things on amazon reviews or facebook groups for example. Because the websites selling these things always make it sound amazing.
When you’ve decided then you can start with that, start small and build up gradually. It’s best at first to leave atleast a week or two, or even more between adding new treatments so you can know what it’s doing and to get past any healing responses.
I admit that now I add things a bit quicker, mostly because I got annoyed of waiting. But at first when I was alot sicker it was much more important to stick to adding one at a time!
2. DON’T neglect the emotional side, find a way to cope!
This is a big one. When you’re quite sick and have intense symptoms it is intense emotionally. Especially at night when I couldn’t sleep I had thoughts of “I’d rather just die instead of having to deal with this”.
But I found a way to keep going. I just had to.
Firstly You Need To Find A Deep Part Inside Of You That KNOWS You’re Going To Heal!
Plus it also helps to have a simple and effective tool to help you deal with some of these emotions – the frustration, hopelessness, anger, hate etc.
I wrote about this in the context of chronic fatigue, but it very much applies to any chronic illness. I give you a simple free tool to help start this process.
A Different Angle On Chronic Fatigue – Healing The Emotions.
I don’t have much more to add other than what i’ve written in those articles.
3. Find ways to enjoy yourself instead of reading about your illness all day.
This was a challenging one for me, I would read for hours and hours just wanting to find a solution. This would bring my mindset down and make me feel like crap. And with how low I was at the time i’d end up taking on some of the symptoms I read about.
Sure it’s good to do some reading, and to post in places for support from others who are going through something similar. But don’t spend your entire day doing so!
Find ways to engage yourself, you might do a puzzle, play some video games, watch old movies from your childhood, draw, paint, go and sit in the sun, sit with your dog (dogs are awesome with this, mine could tell and she would come and give me cuddles which helped reassure me).
Whatever it might be for you.
I understand you might not have alot of energy to do anything too active, and that’s okay. But just find something. Interestingly I found alot of this more engaging in combination with doing Inner Child work to help me reconnect with that part of myself, but that’s a whole other subject.
4. On the difficult days, look back over time and see how far you’ve come.
This might be challenging at the start of your journey. But if you’re taking the right steps, applying good treatments, supplements or being guided by somebody with experience in this area then you will have started recovering and feeling better.
The challenge is that day to day symptoms can pop up and make you feel like you’ve made no progress. It’s very slow and gradual in alot of cases, like with lyme.
But I realized if I looked back over 6+ months that I made alot of progress. At first i’d struggle to go out to shops with a friend for an hour without being destroyed for the rest of the day, and one time it was raining and I ran to my car out the front of the supermarket, maybe only 10 metres and I felt absolutely horrible all day just from doing that.
But then i’ve got to a point where I can go and hang out with friends, go out to dinner, workout more intensely and do alot more stuff. So that’s what you have to look at, it can help to have somebody to remind you of that as when you’re in the middle of this yourself it can be hard to notice.
My healer pointed this out to me, how much i’d improved since I started having sessions with her.
So what has helped you the most?
I’m glad you asked!
Late 2019 I found my current healer who has helped me more than anyone else by far, and also taught me a method that inbetween sessions (usually several months inbetween) I can apply it to adjust my own efforts, adjust what i’m taking, test new things to see if they will be effective for me.
It’s helped me filter down my amount of supplements, and find the things that really are beneficial for me. I’m so grateful I found my healer and also this method.
Introducing Autonomic Response Testing (ART).
Your Body Knows How To Heal! is the premise of Autonomic Response Testing, and we simply ask the body what’s going on and what the most beneficial remedies are!
This really helps you sort through the bullshit, and reduces the need to have a whole second house just to store your supplements! (Well not quite, but I have a whole bench full, and a couple of big plastic containers full in the pantry).
I can also test other things like methods and practices (e.g Qigong and other healing methods) and if they will be beneficial, plus sort through which one will be the most beneficial so you don’t have to try it all!
From my own experience I can help you sort through the frustration and confusion i’ve talked about in this article as i’ve been through it myself, i’m still working on it but i’ve come really far from where I started!
A session goes from 1 1/2 to 2 hours and includes a writeup summarizing the session so you don’t have to remember (which is great when you’re having alot of brainfog and find it hard to think) and I try to keep it as simple as I can.
Yes some of the recommendations I make includes buying different supplements (not from me directly) but I try not to test things that are incredibly expensive unless you ask me to test that specifically to see if it will be beneficial for you.
Sessions are $80 and also includes you being able to send followup questions by email if you’re unsure about something or to even let me know how things are going for you.
Goto https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=20831299&appointmentType=17322505 and select your timezone to book a session.
Beware The Rabbit Hole Of Chronic Illness Groups