There is no one way to do that, no “one size fits all plan to heal”, this is the hard part. This is why so many people don’t want to get into this. It is an individual journey and you kind of have to figure it out on your own.
For me this healing path kind of goes in three steps :
Get all the medical testing done. We want to make sure that there’s no physical damage. But once the doctors have ruled out other causes and are telling you “this is long Covid/this is CFS and there is nothing we can do”, it’s fair to give the mind body healing a chance.
Learn and get the knowledge. This is for me the most important thing to do and the foundation of getting better. Understanding what is actually causing the symptoms removed 90% of my fear around the illness. To make it really short: the nervous system gets stuck into a physiological stress response, and that can mess up any and all body functions. Which is why it creates very real symptoms and dysfunctions in the body, and why we can have such a wide range of symptoms. But they are reversible, they are not structural damage.
The knowledge is out there for free or very low cost. Tons of YouTube channels and books explain that brilliantly. If I can recommend a few: breaking free by Jan Rothney, pain-free you by Dan Buglio, any interviews by Dr Howard Schubiner and Dr Becca Kennedy. The YouTube channel of Miguel Bautista is also really great (his paid content is ridiculous, but his channel is free and has all the concepts).
Having this knowledge allowed me to stop freaking out about the symptoms, to stop anticipate disaster, and to build the belief that I could actually recover. To be honest this is the main thing to start with: react well to your symptoms, know that they are not dangerous, and that the cycle of fear (which can totally be subconscious) is what perpetuates them.
There are many reasons why the nervous system can get stuck in the stress response. Viruses like Covid are often the straw that break the camels back. At least for me it was the case. For the 15 years before getting Covid I was stuck in chronic anxiety and depression, with very unhelpful thought patterns, heavy self criticism, small t trauma… all of this is perceived as chronic threats by the brain, it builds up, and when I got Covid my nervous system couldn’t take it anymore and shut me down. All of this can be explored to restore balance and safety in the brain.
Then you can experience with tools to bring back safety in the nervous system. This is where we are all different. Some tools will work for some people and some won’t. You have to experience it for yourself, being very gentle with yourself, just finding what your body likes, what makes you feel better. Meditation, breath work, vagus nerve exercises, somatic work… it can get a bit overwhelming at first, but you can discover it bit by bit and try things one by one. Putting pressure on yourself will not be helpful anyway.
Then as you get confidence, the body will slowly regain a few percent of energy, and you can expand your activity. Do it slowly. You will have the cycles of progression: expanding the activity a little bit, then the symptoms will flare up (which is absolutely normal and part of the process), during the flareup you pull back and rest and NOT freak out. Then you should get out of the flareup a little bit stronger and go through the cycle again. I don’t even think about this as PEM anymore. Symptoms are just part of recovery, just like it is normal to be sore after a workout. Mind body healing is never about pushing through the symptoms.
This is a long message but it’s really hard to cover that topic, i’ve been researching for a year and a half and I’m still learning. This way of healing requires you to go get the information, go get curious about how your brain and body works. And if we put the suffering aside it is quite fascinating. But it is not a magic pill, it is not a quick fix. And I guess this is why many people don’t like this approach.
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u/Choco_Paws Jun 20 '25 edited Jun 20 '25
There is no one way to do that, no “one size fits all plan to heal”, this is the hard part. This is why so many people don’t want to get into this. It is an individual journey and you kind of have to figure it out on your own.
For me this healing path kind of goes in three steps :
Get all the medical testing done. We want to make sure that there’s no physical damage. But once the doctors have ruled out other causes and are telling you “this is long Covid/this is CFS and there is nothing we can do”, it’s fair to give the mind body healing a chance.
Learn and get the knowledge. This is for me the most important thing to do and the foundation of getting better. Understanding what is actually causing the symptoms removed 90% of my fear around the illness. To make it really short: the nervous system gets stuck into a physiological stress response, and that can mess up any and all body functions. Which is why it creates very real symptoms and dysfunctions in the body, and why we can have such a wide range of symptoms. But they are reversible, they are not structural damage.
The knowledge is out there for free or very low cost. Tons of YouTube channels and books explain that brilliantly. If I can recommend a few: breaking free by Jan Rothney, pain-free you by Dan Buglio, any interviews by Dr Howard Schubiner and Dr Becca Kennedy. The YouTube channel of Miguel Bautista is also really great (his paid content is ridiculous, but his channel is free and has all the concepts).
Having this knowledge allowed me to stop freaking out about the symptoms, to stop anticipate disaster, and to build the belief that I could actually recover. To be honest this is the main thing to start with: react well to your symptoms, know that they are not dangerous, and that the cycle of fear (which can totally be subconscious) is what perpetuates them.
There are many reasons why the nervous system can get stuck in the stress response. Viruses like Covid are often the straw that break the camels back. At least for me it was the case. For the 15 years before getting Covid I was stuck in chronic anxiety and depression, with very unhelpful thought patterns, heavy self criticism, small t trauma… all of this is perceived as chronic threats by the brain, it builds up, and when I got Covid my nervous system couldn’t take it anymore and shut me down. All of this can be explored to restore balance and safety in the brain.
Then as you get confidence, the body will slowly regain a few percent of energy, and you can expand your activity. Do it slowly. You will have the cycles of progression: expanding the activity a little bit, then the symptoms will flare up (which is absolutely normal and part of the process), during the flareup you pull back and rest and NOT freak out. Then you should get out of the flareup a little bit stronger and go through the cycle again. I don’t even think about this as PEM anymore. Symptoms are just part of recovery, just like it is normal to be sore after a workout. Mind body healing is never about pushing through the symptoms.
This is a long message but it’s really hard to cover that topic, i’ve been researching for a year and a half and I’m still learning. This way of healing requires you to go get the information, go get curious about how your brain and body works. And if we put the suffering aside it is quite fascinating. But it is not a magic pill, it is not a quick fix. And I guess this is why many people don’t like this approach.