I’ve had ME, with varying levels of energy, since 1996 and tried Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Reiki and other forms of Healing, with varying success.
At the beginning of 2003, I picked up and read Alex Howard’s book – Why M.E? Although I’d read several things in the past, and am an ‘active’ (if you can be active with ME!) member of our local support group, this book really clicked – my initial experiences of ME were very similar to Alex’s and his ideas made sense to me and his motivation to read as many books as possible about ME and associated areas, was something I could do too, as brain fog was never a major symptom of mine.
So I read! And discovered about basic NLP, positive thinking and affirmations, yoga, nutrition…and so on.
I found Alex’s website, which I often looked on to see what he had to say...! And sometime later I discovered he was opening a clinic in London. Living some 100 miles north east of London, and at the time, not going much further than my front gate without getting seriously anxious about going out, the idea of going to London felt a little out of my range.
Then in 2005, a local friend of mine, with ME, felt he was interested in finding out more about what the clinic had to offer, and was fortunately strong enough to drive to London. So he went a couple of times and came back to tell me all about it.
In the mean time, I’d been on my first holiday abroad for years – the lure of sunny weather had won over against my gnawing worry of ‘would I cope’. The holiday itself was lovely, but the stress and nerves and worry and anxiety I went through for several days before departing were unbelievable. I knew I was wasting so much energy shaking like a leaf and constantly thinking ‘will I be ok’ but I just couldn’t stop it no matter how hard I tried.
So once I got back I knew I had to find a way to control and calm and stop all this understandable but unnecessary worrying, which I could feel, if only I could get away from, I’d have so much more energy.
So even though London felt a long way away, with the motivation of knowing I had to do something about the nervousness, and with the advantage that my friend would drive us both door to door – I took the plunge!! It was actually a lot easier than I thought, but maybe that’s knowing what I know now, of how to handle the nerves and worry.
My main criteria was to sort out the nerves (for little, everyday things as well as for big events like holidays), but the technique Anna taught me can be used to deal with so many things – so simple yet so powerful!!
Anna was very friendly and instantly put me at ease – we talked about my ME and my thoughts behind some of the ways I think about ME. It soon became very apparent that what I thought were lots of different worries and concerns were all closely linked with very similar thought processes going on unconsciously. It all made so much sense to me.
The simple technique was soon put into practise, and it worked – I didn’t feel so anxious. I slowly stopped worrying whether I’d be ok while I was out and the pleasant side effect was that I wasn’t so tired after doing things (because I wasn’t wasting so much energy worrying beforehand).
Although London was easier to get to than I thought, I still had several phone sessions with Anna, which were very useful, as they helped to keep me focused on using the technique continuously.
I’ve now been to the clinic 5 or 6 times, working on my thought patterns, keeping me focused on moving forward and learning a few other techniques to help me progress.
Although, my energy is still limited, its MUCH more stable and I feel much more in control of my ME and me! I feel that if I keep using these techniques, then I will gradually keep improving to a place where I don’t have ME anymore.
(I have been abroad again since, and although a bit anxious, it was NOTHING like before…)
To anyone interested in trying the clinic – if you’ve read Alex’s book or anything about NLP, and the concepts make sense of your ME, then give them a ring and give it a go.
It can only be a step in the right direction (even if its not for you, you’re bound to learn a useful technique or find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before), and with dedication it can really help!
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