M.E./C.F.S. – Why can hypnosis help?


What is ME/CFS/PVFS (Myalgic Encephalopathy/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome)?

ME is a very physical illness. It leaves the sufferer feeling like they have a cold all the time and can often debilitate them to the point they need to lay down most of the day.

Most ME sufferers have normally been tested for other illnesses and then when nothing shows up been classified as suffering from ME or one of it’s various other names.

It would be very rare to two ME sufferers to have identical symptoms but there is a pool or classic symptoms and they normally meet a minimum number of these.

IF ME is a physical illness why can hypnotherapy help?

Everything in the body is related. If someone see something that is perceived as danger their body will go into flight or fight and their heart will beat faster. If at a second glance they realise there is no danger they relax again and their heart slows down. Thinking there was danger caused a physical reaction in their body. And realising there was no danger caused another physical reaction.

Our thoughts control our bodies. If we decide to remember sad things our body has a reaction. If we decide to remember happy times our body reacts differently.

An ME sufferer is suffering a real illness but how we deal with that illness is an important factor in causing recovery from it. It is almost certain depression will have been mentioned to any ME sufferer and it is natural that someone suffering from such a debilitating illness might feel a little depressed.

In my experience as an ME suffer I would maintain a lot of sufferers do not suffer from depression and on the contrary have a positive outlook on things.

During the 15 years I suffered with ME I don’t believe there was ever a time I was depressed. I also had dates I thought I might recover by. Sadly it didn’t happen. Therefore there was something else which prevented recovery.

What that something was is still unknown to me. With hypnosis it was no longer relevant however.

What worked in my case was for me to focus on individual symptoms and for me to imagine I was a runner again. Actually I went into trance and focused on being 23 again. I did this for sometime before I started the physical process of training my body again.

In the past I had tried Graduated Exercises, walking 50m a day, then 60m then 70m. I could never get passed 2mins of walking because I was then so tired I could not do the minimal things I did to fill out the rest of my time.

By priming my body that is was doing physical things it remembered how to do without actually doing it I believe i was able to prime my body to prepare for the physical work. Also I built up the desire to achieve again instead of believing I could not walk. It was an important shift and one that hypnosis and positive thinking helped.