Thanks to Michelle and everyone else who takes the time to write about their experience and what has helped them once they have recovered. I read them with interest and know they are offered in a sincere desire to help others.
I see that most of these recovery stories involve dietary changes and stress reduction and a strong desire to get well. I wonder though how many of these recoveries are really just a result of time and things we don't yet adequately understand such as genetic makeup? And therefore people who do not recover perhaps should not blame themselves for not trying hard enough.
I and my children got post-viral syndrome/CFS at the same time. After two years, my daughter is almost completely recovered but my son and I are not. I can not see any differences between the three of us that might account for that different outcome. We all have a healthy diet (but ate well before getting sick too) but none of us have followed a severely restricted diet for any length of time. We were not particularly stressed before getting ill; if anything, my son is the most laidback of all of us. I am taking a very wide range of supplements, my son is not and yet neither of us are getting better.
Of course, eating well and not being stressed can only help with recovery and making changes in these directions can help us feel as if we are taking control of our illness. So, probably most people with this illness have made dietary and lifestyle changes. Most of those fortunate people who get well, with hindsight, will naturally assume the efforts they made had some impact. However I expect that there would be just as many people who have made the same changes and have not got well.
)). There's also Montoya's intriguing study suggesting that the longer his patients took antivirals the better they did.
