HEALTH | CHRONIC FATIGUE
HEALTH 180°
Jan Rothney, 62, from North Devon, reveals how she transformed her health and overcame a diagnosis of chronic fatigue.
ONE DAY IN 2003, I was running around an adventure park, having fun with my younger daughter before seeing friends I left my friends’ early, as I started to get a runny nose, and went home to have an early night. Then, I didn’t wake up for weeks.
I remember drifting in and out of sleep and being in a darkened room. My only memory of those few weeks is being propped up a k in bed to be given a drink. Being bedridden on my own, with my two young girls popping in occasionally to check on me, became the norm for the next few months.
My body had completely shut down, like a house having a power cut, left in the dark with no energ y. Lying alone, unable to move, was terrifying. Although it was devastating and seemed to come out of the blue, part of me wasn’t surprised. I had been living on a-wing-and-a-prayer for many years, keeping going, smiling, dealing with work and other challenges; I was like a graceful swan, paddling madly under the surface, knowing I was going under. After years of sleep deprivation, unreasonable workloads and unrealistic to-do-lists, repetitive post-viral fatigue, chemical intolerance from household products, gut problems and dealing with years of conflict within my relationship, I was exhausted – physically and mentally.
My doctor diagnosed ME and reassured me I would recover. ME, or CFS as it is called today, is not tiredness, it is the body completely shutting down, being immobilised, and then just ticking over. Other symptoms include: a racing heartbeat, muscle and joint pain, inflammation, nausea, temperature fluctuations, brain fog and hypersensitivity to sound, light, touch, taste or smell. It is utterly terrifying and soul destroying, especially when you never know when your body is going to crash.
BEING IN SURVIVAL MODE
I was so fortunate to have taught health and social care; I can’t imagine how frightening and debilitating this is for people who don’t know what has happened to them. I realised it was my body’s ancient survival systems kicking in to protect me.
Symptoms of high arousal are caused by the fight and flight mechanism, which I call ‘the chimp’, and the crashes are due to the reptilian survival system, which I call ‘the reptile’, putting the body into freeze mode, to protect it from being destroyed. I knew that any threats or danger automatically activate these survival systems. When you’re so ill, everything becomes a threat, so I knew I had to do and think the opposite: I had to let my inner survival systems know I was safe, always, even when I crashed or had symptoms o
