Hi, I’m Jo. I got ME when I was 21, on my final year of my degree. It started with an ear infection and a throat infection, and it just knocked me back. I remember feeling … well, I remember … I don’t remember anything, actually. I think it’s almost like a lost a whole month of my life. Suddenly, I started to feel better, but I realized like a whole month had gone by, and I’d been asleep, or I’d been really unwell, and that was really scary. And then … So, I started to feel a bit better, so I started to go out, and do things, but nothing … something wasn’t quite right. I’d go to walk down the road and feel faint, or feel really weak and have to stop halfway. It was pretty horrible, and really scary, because before that point, I mean, I was a bit stressed out, but I was pretty healthy and living a really full life, so suddenly to get knocked back was scary. Really scary.
Then it just continued, and I went to the doctor, and said, “There’s something wrong with me,” and they just told me I was stressed out, and I maybe should take antidepressants, or something, which I knew wasn’t the problem because I knew I wasn’t depressed. I just thought there was something physically wrong with me, so …. Yeah, it was hard. I was aching all over. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t speak clearly. My friends said I was speaking like … I sounded like I was drunk. I felt weak. I couldn’t lift things. I couldn’t walk very far. I had to keep sitting down all the time.
I think I kind of felt I was sort of in the dark for a bit, and I didn’t really know what to do, so .. but after about a year or so, I started looking into treatment and things. I tried acupuncture, allergy testing, all sorts of nutritional diets and things, and just general relaxation techniques, because I knew my system was kind of really stressed, I felt. I felt on edge all the time.
So, back in November last year, I went back to see Ashok, and I was feeling quite good at the time, I think. I’ve come a long way with my health, and in general, I knew I was kind of on the road to recovery, and definitely getting somewhere, and moving forward. And then, the day I did the technique, it was quite strange because I think, in general, I was feeling, like I said, very positive and very pleased with my progress, Then, yeah, after I did the technique, I kind of realized that there was still quite a lot of feelings of negativity that I had, and so it was actually quite a powerful thing to do. It made me realize just how much I was over what I’d been through, and that I could take it into my own hands, and kind of … This thing wasn’t in control of me, and that, perhaps I was in control of it now, and that was pretty incredible, I think, yeah.
After the session, I felt incredibly in control, and I think that that word is really important, because it just felt so totally out of control. As an illness, the whole things just felt like I wasn’t in control of anything. So, to actually come out and feel like I could do something and be in control, and that I wasn’t ill anymore, was an amazing feeling.
Yeah, so I came out of the session feeling like I knew I didn’t have CFS anymore, and … Obviously, I had to work at it. It wasn’t sort of just suddenly like that … But just the knowledge that I had what it took to be over it, and to just live a normal life. Yes, if someone’s skeptical, I’d say, “Just give it a try, because what have you got to lose? It has worked for me, and I think it has worked for other people as well, and so how will you know if it’s going to work unless you give it a go? And be positive, because no matter how, I don’t know, kind of lost, or stuck, you might feel, you can get out of it.”
While I was ill, every day was a struggle. It was just indescribable really, just not knowing how you’re going to feel, or just .. I remember thinking, actually, “Oh, I wish I could just have a holiday from illness and just feel well for a day. How nice would that be?” Because it just … when you live chronically with an illness, it’s just completely all-consuming, and it takes over everything. Not just your job, but your family life, your social life. It affects everything. You know, I hardly ever went out, because if I did go out, I just never felt like I was myself. I really felt like people weren’t really seeing the real me anymore. I was working, but again, while I worked, it was only part-time, and I was very quiet, and really reserved and distant, because that was the only way I could cope, because I was actually working in a complete daze, and … just constant pressure and constant stress and strain, and fear of just not knowing when it’s going to end. It was just horrible.
Now, completely different,I’m in a completely different place. Don’t have any of that emotional stress and strain anymore, and I’ve got quite a full social life now, and feeling very happy about life, in general.