My chronic fatigue story

My 12 years of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia included 2 years bedbound, years of push-and-crash cycle throughout an intense career as Global Director of Talent for scaling companies, a final dramatic burnout and 2 more years housebound.

Throughout that time, I felt ill every single day.

I put my social life on hold, isolated myself from friends and family in order to push myself at work, and spent weeks at a time hibernating at home to recover.

I’d always prided myself on helping others and giving, and I hated that I could no longer do that. I’d been so proud of my work ethic, and when I was forced to leave my career behind too, I felt as though I had lost my very identity.

I’d tried everything.

Doctors (private and NHS), acupuncture, yoga, homeopaths and naturopaths, kinesiology, trauma counselling, CBT. I took every supplement, tried every health tip under the sun, changed my diet with the season.

Some of it helped. None of it was enough.

The doctors said I looked fine.

At first they suggested that maybe I was just depressed. That perhaps it was anxiety.

They said my bloods were all good. When I finally got a diagnosis 6 years in, they explained that there is no cure under NICE guidelines for ME/CFS. They suggested I should learn to live with my “new normal”. That I needed to give up on my ambitions and dreams.

I refused to give up.