TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Alex Howard’s ME/CFS full recovery story 05:33 There isn’t only one answer / how Alex learns from the most difficult cases 11:20 What does it mean to ‘decode your fatigue’? 13:51 The map to decode your fatigue and the map to recovery 20:14 How important is the mind-body connection? 21:59 Make more energy than you use 24:20 The 5 personality types & the stress/relapse cycle 34:10 One gift of fatigue 37:05 The three stages of recovery 45:00 Some reasons people can get “stuck” at 70-80% recovery 49:08 Practical strategies for people to get started with 54:00 How to follow Alex and learn more about his work
Wow, so many great insights! I love the more nuanced perspective on things, the awareness of the different stages and the recognition of how everybody's situation and solution is different. Thank you so much for this!
This is the best information I've ever come across! Mapping out the sources of the illness makes so much sense, and then is super helpful to map out the recovery. I'm so excited and feel hopeful that I can get out of this illness. I'm 59 years old and I've had health issues since I was 12. I've tried countless modalities, therapies and treatments with modest success. I see now there are a couple of key areas that I need to return to that I thought were not important... but they are! Thank you so much for all this great content. I had given up hope and was working on just accepting the illness as part of my life experience. 💖🙏👍
The book was amazing! I listened to it as well. I’m an NP suffering from ME/CFS, trying to work online part time. I get so disregarded by the medical system.
In Alex's first book (written many years ago) he talks about the final thing he did to recover was a very early rendition of the Phil Parker's Lighting Process. He is now such a pusher of function medicine (and the OHC patients spends thousands and thousands on testing, supplements, etc.) whereas there really was no functional testing/functional medicine, etc. when Alex recovered.
"It is really important to go to [functional medicine] practitioners that specialize in fatigue." Where else do practitioners specialise in fatigue other than Alex's OHC? I really like Alex but this seems self serving to me.
So what do you wanna hear from him? That everybody should go do LP? I don't understand your point, being honest. Of course he's gonna promote his clinic. Plus he might be more knowledgable now than when he was writing the book. I think people still think that there is one thing CFS/ME. Which just simply isn't the case. Some people will recover using methods like LP because that might work for their set of causes. Some people will recover with diet and other lifestyle changes (what Alex preaches). And some people will never recover until their cause is found and dealt with. It is the sad reality of this illness. There will be multiple people in this comment section, suffering very similar symptoms, for many different reasons.
I think that as you recover and reflect back on your journey you can see things that you missed, would have done differently and would have speed up the process and its likely that is why he says about testing. I would definitely advocate it too but you certainly don't have to...there are multiple ways to recover and its up to you what you do and how much you can spend on certain areas. Check out Dan Neuffer ANS rewire..I think its very similar and might resonate with you more.
Alex set up his clinic over 16 years ago after his recovery which yep, the final piece was LP. However, since then he has spend almost two decades in clinical practice and as a result of that, realises that for the vast majority of CFS patients, healing is complex. He acknowledges what works for one, doesn’t work for all. This realisation has come through his years of clinical experience. Hence why he speaks of a holistic approach and not purely the brain retraining stuff.
Extremely personable young man. I attended his 90 day programme in London many years ago, in the very early days. He had a great team around him in the psychology and nutrition side. I know of someone who recovered following that course but many didn't. It was fun though.
Another excellent and resourse-packed interview. One thing I would say I that Alex repeatedly said that he hadn't planned this as his life's work, but I disagree. On a soul level, it's very clear that both of you DID plan this, as I believe, so many of us that are suffering and learning along the way did ❤️
I love that you consciously engage with people that challenge your narrative! It's so important if you want to find truth rather than comfortably confirm your own opinion!
I have your book Realan and now I've bought Alex's book too . Thank goodness for your knowledge and belief that we will all recover from ME and or long covid
I am definitely an achiever plus controller of everything around me to feel safe and didn’t even realise really, or did I?? I have, despite around 30 yrs of issues and problems health wise and 20 yrs of emotional health issues achieved all of my life goals (rental house portfolio 😅, place abroad which is the absolute best possible, no work and money in the bank). I am still trying to achieve perfection in everything I do, my home, my body and my looks (I’m 53 and look 10 yrs younger with a body that looks 20 yrs younger) so now with this knowledge I can hopefully start to rest and say no to myself after listening to this! I don’t need to be perfect and achieve perfection as it’s exhausting and maybe my ME/CFS will subside with everything else I do!! Oh I’m a perfectionist at knowing all about the nervous system and everything that helps, supplements, general health and diet, fasting and a whole lot of other things too. No wonder I’m exhausted all the time!!! 😅
Thanks Raelan and Alex. This is such an amazing interview with so much great information. My trigger was a chiropractor neck and spine adjustment. I was a nurse one day and debilitated and bedbound the next with pots syndrome and mecfs. I love that Alex speaks on subtypes, because I think we each may have something different fueling the illness. And oh my!! I think I fit all of those personalities. My whole life I was a helper, achiever, perfectionist, controller etc. I thought I was a successful, responsible adult 😂. I now realize I lacked boundaries and a healthy lifestyle. I can also completely relate to getting better and then going back to that type A unhealthy lifestyle and relapsing into death valley again. I am so guilty 🙋♀️ It’s so hard to break patterns that are so engraved in our being. But recovery is definitely worth putting in the hard work. 💪
Mine was to it made mine worse next day ime going to try a jaw splint hypomobility in the neck maybe the source for me check out tmj fybromyalgia connection
Fantastic interview. Alex is one of my heroes...he does amazing work and is so knowledgeable...I love his TH-cam channel. I am so glad you got to interview him. I have his book and I can't wait to read it! Thank you ❤
One minor point of difference I have: at one point was brought up the choice of prioritizing someone else's needs or your own. I often see it differently. I mean, when you have ME/CFS and little energy people aren't exactly beating down your door to meet your social needs (I mean, we are social creatures, right?). So I often see social opportunities as a choice between "Do I go out and die of exhaustion?" or "Do I stay home and die of loneliness?". And yeah, some of that may be grounded in low self-esteem, but not all of it.
Great interview, lots of information. I did Alex Howards RESET Program, a great place to start, I am currently reading his book. I found Alex's approach easy to to understand and very relatable. Love his work, so glad you got to interview him.
Thank you Realan for your effort sharing all these stories. I am on my healing journey and your chanel helps me to sustain motivation and stay on track. Thank you 🙏
Once again a great and uncanny skill utilised to bring the very best out of the speaker who has been so fundamental in the clinical knowledge and treatment of this robber baron of a condition. You certainly know how to enstage you speakers. With your diligence and skill I know that my chances of a full recovery are now significantly closer. Thank you heaps thank you 🙏
Graham, thank you as always for your incredible kindness and support. Hearing from you always brings a smile to my face and I can't wait to hear about the day that you've found your puzzle pieces and you've found your way past this. You seem like such an amazing person, sending hugs and support right back at yah 💛
Great stuff, thanks guys Alex,I’ve followed you since the very beginning (secrets to recovery, on an MP3 player. I’ve now had fibro for15 years ,and I’ll never give up,I can’t( a wife who works and two girls that I can never play with,this hell makes you feel bad as a father! Anyway one day ,thanks guys and Alex, I’ll buy the book!.I bought “ Why me” a decade ago,or more !
excellent!!!!!!!!!!! thanks you so much. there are so many bricks in my therapeutic thinking and working and i found out... now the pieces fall into place.
This was super helpful! Broken down in a way I can understand, as I’m in the very beginning of my recovery journey from autonomic disfunction. Neuropathy, POTS, fatigue after 5 years of being ill. Every test doctors have given me comes up negative except low T. Mechanically sound yet so sick… I am finding hope and answers for the first time in 5 years. THANKS! ❤️
John i can relate although im just in month 4 post covid post heart rythm ablation! Low T is very interesting as im 68 and at 300. May try it for a while. This is real yes BUT imo caused by our mind so……..
I fit in every one of those patterns. 😮 The achiever and perfectionist gave me financial abundance that I don’t get to enjoy. My time, energy, and money are consumed by trying to heal. 😢
This is great. Loved his breakdown of the stages. Love hearing people that know what they’re talking about with this illness. Gives so much useful info that the doctors I know have 0 knowledge on.
Thank you for this interview. Very insightful, too. Again, I relate to what Alex mentioned thinking back to my CFS healing journey. He categorized the personalities and stages so well. I'll definitely read his and your book.
That was such a great interview. Alex came across as very knowledgeable and genuine, which is so important. I really resonated with some of this, particularly currently having a missing piece that is holding me back from full recovery... Which I'm starting to think is the keto diet I am on. I believe I have a degree of insulin resistance, which this will reverse. Plus it allows for a more healing state within the body. Just before Christmas I started to randomly feel more energetic during a really busy week where I expected to feel more and more tired, and I think that after 5 /6 weeks of keto it was finally starting to make positive changes - Christmas has obviously set me back a bit, and it's been interesting to see my energy dip a bit after coming out of keto for a few days. But back on it now, so looking forward to seeing how things go. I've done a lot of work on mental health, including brain retraining, and whilst it had made a huge difference, it has not managed to get me all the way. Other dietary changes such as a plant based diet have made no difference. But I think keto was starting to really change things. It goes to show how important it is for us to use trial and error in our own recovery. Alex's note about something helping at one stage then hindering later on also really resonated. I realised that I had become fearful of exercise and of generally pushing myself too far then continually crashing. But it took me a while to realise this. It also took a long time to find exercise that was right for me and didn't set me back - dancing with my toddler for just 2 minutes a day, then building up naturally, and slowly. An approach set out by Raelan to start really small. I write these things because I learn from other people's comments and you never know what comment might be helpful to someone else. Raelan my whole journey of recovery (so far to around 75%) is down to you and the people you interview! Thank you so much! Just when I think there's nothing else I need to know for my recovery, you interview someone else and it turns out there was! ❤️
eating paleo-keto was ground breaking for me too! i went from 90% bed/sofa to doing a 5mile walk in 3 months -of course that was too much too soon n i crashed n it was just b4 xmas n i realised my ex wasnt gunna return etc n i fell off the wagon. ive been mostly low carb, but not keto the 2 yrs since. This time, ive been slowly quitting things and now all i have to do is switch my macros, which i started new year's day. Im definitely 'stuck' in the 3rd stage of recovery these last few years, esp with covid making me avoidant of reintegration. the fear of a relapse is one of my bigger issues, but i also give myself internal stress with my posture and thinking patterns (childhood shizzle). Alexander technique taught me how to relax my body n use it more effectively, but its a case of constantly remembering to choose the new patterns and i have a psychotherapist my nan pays for to help address the thinking n personality stuff. After id been keto for 3-4months, i felt like i had rocket fuel n could climb walls! haha i felt id become more intelligent than id EVER been too and bonus was i lost the 3 stone id put on whilst being 90% bed/sofa-bound :D i would check out dr sarah myhill re ensuring ur version of keto contains all the supplements/foods to ensure optimum health. I use her sunshine salt to make my supplement bill cheaper XD
@@kimwarburton8490 That's really interesting and inspiring to hear regarding the keto diet, thanks Kim! I'll also check it the lady you mention. Have you watched Raelan's interview with Mary Ruddick? I found that very interesting. I've also listened to one of her 2 interviews on the Peak Human podcast, which was on TH-cam, which was really fascinating. I'm sorry to hear that you've had a rough ride otherwise and that you're stuck. It's so frustrating isn't it? I get the fear thing too. I'm finding that very slowly pushing my boundaries is helpful, as well as redirecting instinctive mental reactions... Eg my toddler wakes up in the middle of the night and my instinct reaction is fear about how long I'll be up with her and how I'll cope, or not, tomorrow. And I now know that I'll be tired but that these days I can cope much much better. So after noticing that reaction, I now make sure to tell myself that it's OK, that I'll be a bit more tired tomorrow like any normal person, but that I can cope. Also that I'll be self compassionate and have rest when she naps if needed. Things like that make a difference over the long run in your energy. I'd definitely check out some kind of brain retraining if you can. Also check out Joe Dispenza's meditations, which you can listen to on TH-cam for free. Along with testimonials. Good luck!
@@jessicahayward-smith3469 Thanks! i have an issue with consistency, but i am seeing a therapist 2x a month n it really helps. Ive done dan nueffer's ANSrewire n i did gain alot from it, but its recognising the internal thinking which iv struggled with most. but thats cos the traumas/stressors have been with me since i was 4-ish or younger, so to me, its all normal lol! hence the therapist. Iv a funny anecdote I did NHS CBT 3yrs ago, spring 2019 n the guy tried to get me to see that im highly self-critical. i said id take it onboard n consider it, but i didnt think it likely, if anything i wasnt hard enough on myself! It took until 1.5yrs ago for me to realise he was correct n start working on self-love deficit! I cannot wait until ive learned all the things i need to learn that i never learnt so i can heal n become the person i shouldve always been -im kinda excited for it cos im already SOOOO much happier!
I always think Alex Howard talks common sense. I like his calm clear communication. He seems a genuinely lovely guy. I did his CFS psychology programme. It was helpful and I still use it but it's not the whole answer to my recovery, as I'm not healed yet. Like he says, there must be other elements to my health jigsaw not successfully addressed yet. Raelan have you thought of interviewing Toby Morrison from CFS Health? He too had CFS and runs his own recovery program. I'd be interested to hear more about him in an interview. 😊
I’ll buy the tape Alex, gosh, it’s so hard to read when the eyes are so,so, painful, and your half brain dead with fog.I have eight books,still waiting to be read, (or re-read)Raelan, I’ve said it before, you are a gem !
Stage one was completely elusive to me as one could easily attribute the fatigue and achy muscles to other causes like perimenopause. Often CF doesn’t become recognized until the severe or scarier symptoms of stage 2 I agree about finding balance between push and rest depending on the stage. I feel stuck at 70%. The psychological component is so critical. I’m not pacing carefully enough. He is so right about the sensitizations as I have never had an issue with anxiety or ptsd but the reaction I had to sounds, light and smells were crazy. The digestive disruption takes a while and seemed to get worse with flares.
Hi Alex .. I jumped the gun. I zipped over to Audible in the middle of listening to this interview, and ordered Decode Your Fatigue. ~ Call it 'Eager Beaver Syndrome' 😋 Question .. Being that I completed the transaction, I highly doubt that Audible would be willing to let me change my mind and purchase the material book version now. So .. Is there a way of acquiring your free companion course - that you spoke of toward the end of the interview - with the Audible version? If not, no worries. Either way, I'm really looking forward to diving into your book. Delightful interview, Raelan. 👍
Oh great question! I do know that you can return books in Audible (I've done it before) but I would imagine you could get the companion course with the Audible version as well. Hopefully we can share the details on how to do that here soon :)
What if you have all 5? 🤣😂🤣 *Raises hand*... Not so much control anymore...but yeah. Wow this was SO helpful! Thanks so much to both of you. Lots to ponder.
Thank you for this video. I just wish you took your time while talking. I am healing my ANS and I definitely feel the difference when I watch other videos and yours. I know you must be very excited but you are rushing a lot especially at the beginning of the interview. It was a bit stressful tbh. 😔 I think it’ll benefit us and also you because I can imagine that making the interviews can be a lot of work. Best,
Have you had to do with people who were fatigue from the childhood and getting worse as grew up?? When you talk about swimming, diving, travelling… my daughter has never been able to do those things without extreme fatigue
Great interview.. I was hoping that he would explain a bit more about brain retraining. I see/hear tonnes on how brain retraining seems to be helping lots of people increase their activity and that calming the nervous system seems to free up the "danger response".. I personally find it confusing, are we paying off some sort of mitochondrial debt or are we rewiring our brains out of the danger response?
Brain retraining is a specific technique, different with every brain retraining program. Is hard to explain it to someone in a few sentences. It takes way more knowledge and explainimg the steps. Understanding the triggers, how you recognize them and why does all that work. I tried DNRS and could not folloe that technique but works for so many others. I recovered using ANS Rewire as is a program specifically designed for CFS. That approch worked amazing for me but, I can not lie, was a lot of work. Brain retraining is based on neuroplastisity and is a LOT of repetition. And then each person has their individuap way of using the technique. If you have more specific questions about ANS Rewire, let me know
iv done dan nueffer's ANSrewire and i did a hypnotherapy/NLP diploma 15+yrs ago, as well as a lifelong interest in the brain n psychology cos o my family's generational trauma n my own mental health difficulties .. Brain retraining takes aspects from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming strategies and meditation. Meditation gives ur brain a chance to relax the constant thinking, it teaches you how to recognise the thoughts that are limiting ur progress. It puts ur nervous system into a healing mode. The harder meditation is, the more you NEED to do it. Mindfullness meditation is the best form to use, though all types will be of benefit. Myself, i use a mix of mantra (i deserve to care for my mind, body n soul) and dan nueffer's meditation tracks. Guided meditations on youtube are good for relaxation, but typically doesnt teach you to become self-aware Recognition is the key thing n half the battle When you've recognised unhelpful stress inducing thoughts, the next stage is to reframe n this is where CBT and NLP comes into play. You can find many of these resources for free online, or by buying books. You are essentially reframing/initiating a new perspective with a strategy. CBT teaches you to question ur thinking, NLP gives u tools such as the swish technique, or anchoring. When i was calling myself ugly, i stopped it in a few months, despite it being a lifelong thing with a simple reversal. Id auto-matically call myself ugly n then id at least 3 times repeat positive traits i could see n liked The last stage is you want to reward yourself n recognise n celebrate your efforts and get yourself into a positive emotional state. Emotions are KEY for cementing changes. Many people only need to do the meditations, so thats a good place to start while learning about CBT and NLP n applying those tools in a tailored approach. THey are adaptable n better when you change them up to ur individual needs after some experimentation to find what works best for YOU. "Are we paying off some sort of mito debt or are we rewiring out of the danger response?" Id say its a bit of both You are calming down the nervous system, so it is less dysregulated n sending out less danger signals and learns how to relax again, while also reducing stressful thinking patterns n making personality changes such as having healthy boundries, saying no to self n others n assertiveness (typically) This then means you have access to the energy one was wasting while in energy debt. You are better able to digest u gain nutrients from ur food n feed ur mito's (However, i found that i needed to switch my fuel from a carbohydrate based diet to a paleo-ketogenic one to give my mito's the boost they needed, because the mitos i did have were impoverished n were born that way. i needed to 'breed' new mito's which were healthier) hope that helps
@@majahorvat7294 totally different. I could not recognize any triggers with the DNRS approach and the videos did not have a multi lateral approach as ANS Rewore has. With ANS Rewire you have a lesson a day, so you build slowly into the knowledge and the actions plan. And most important, the rewore technique with ANS Rewire does not in life any visualizations exercise as DNRS (or Gupta) does. I lost a year in disappointment after I tried DNRS until I finally was willing to give ANS a try. Oh...but at least DNRS has a good return policy. So at 6 months mark ( not earlier and under a year I think) you can get a (almost) full refund
I love Alex's work and I actually bought his course, but I am afraid that long covid and some post viral illnesses probably have bio markers and could benefit from anti virals / anti biotics, etc, is just that science has not got the change to put money and research on it yet. I pray for those folks that have tried everything (including mind/body theory) but still don't find an answer
What is the difference in your mind? I think there is no official difference between CFS and ME in the official description. It is one thing. But I personally think that there are people in this category that have all sorts of different issues. If that wouldn't be the case, major number of people would recover by now using strategies found online.
@@djVania08 Yes, major have CFS, causing sleepiness and fatigue and they will get help from online stuff like this. ME is something else and when one find a cure the hole world will know of whom finding that cure will get revealed and payed.
@@sandyjenssen1128 To be diagnosed with CFS/ME, you gotta have PEM. At the end of the day, PEM is yet another symptom of this bucket of diseases. The body has energy / regeneration problem. So it still didn't answer my question. Where I can agree with you is when people talk about chronic fatigue. Because chronic fatigue is symptom not a diagnosis.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Alex Howard’s ME/CFS full recovery story
05:33 There isn’t only one answer / how Alex learns from the most difficult cases
11:20 What does it mean to ‘decode your fatigue’?
13:51 The map to decode your fatigue and the map to recovery
20:14 How important is the mind-body connection?
21:59 Make more energy than you use
24:20 The 5 personality types & the stress/relapse cycle
34:10 One gift of fatigue
37:05 The three stages of recovery
45:00 Some reasons people can get “stuck” at 70-80% recovery
49:08 Practical strategies for people to get started with
54:00 How to follow Alex and learn more about his work
Read this book about 2 months ago and I HIGHLY recommend it for CFS Recovery!
So glad to hear you found it helpful as well! ❤
How is your recovery going?
Wow, so many great insights! I love the more nuanced perspective on things, the awareness of the different stages and the recognition of how everybody's situation and solution is different. Thank you so much for this!
This is the best information I've ever come across! Mapping out the sources of the illness makes so much sense, and then is super helpful to map out the recovery. I'm so excited and feel hopeful that I can get out of this illness. I'm 59 years old and I've had health issues since I was 12. I've tried countless modalities, therapies and treatments with modest success. I see now there are a couple of key areas that I need to return to that I thought were not important... but they are! Thank you so much for all this great content. I had given up hope and was working on just accepting the illness as part of my life experience. 💖🙏👍
I'm so happy for you 🧡 🧡 Wishing you all the best in finding that last puzzle piece!
The book was amazing! I listened to it as well. I’m an NP suffering from ME/CFS, trying to work online part time. I get so disregarded by the medical system.
So sorry to hear that, Becca ❤ But glad to hear you loved the book as well!
In Alex's first book (written many years ago) he talks about the final thing he did to recover was a very early rendition of the Phil Parker's Lighting Process. He is now such a pusher of function medicine (and the OHC patients spends thousands and thousands on testing, supplements, etc.) whereas there really was no functional testing/functional medicine, etc. when Alex recovered.
"It is really important to go to [functional medicine] practitioners that specialize in fatigue." Where else do practitioners specialise in fatigue other than Alex's OHC? I really like Alex but this seems self serving to me.
So what do you wanna hear from him? That everybody should go do LP? I don't understand your point, being honest. Of course he's gonna promote his clinic. Plus he might be more knowledgable now than when he was writing the book.
I think people still think that there is one thing CFS/ME. Which just simply isn't the case. Some people will recover using methods like LP because that might work for their set of causes. Some people will recover with diet and other lifestyle changes (what Alex preaches). And some people will never recover until their cause is found and dealt with. It is the sad reality of this illness.
There will be multiple people in this comment section, suffering very similar symptoms, for many different reasons.
I think that as you recover and reflect back on your journey you can see things that you missed, would have done differently and would have speed up the process and its likely that is why he says about testing. I would definitely advocate it too but you certainly don't have to...there are multiple ways to recover and its up to you what you do and how much you can spend on certain areas. Check out Dan Neuffer ANS rewire..I think its very similar and might resonate with you more.
Alex set up his clinic over 16 years ago after his recovery which yep, the final piece was LP. However, since then he has spend almost two decades in clinical practice and as a result of that, realises that for the vast majority of CFS patients, healing is complex. He acknowledges what works for one, doesn’t work for all. This realisation has come through his years of clinical experience. Hence why he speaks of a holistic approach and not purely the brain retraining stuff.
What is OHC and what is LP?
This is years ahead of where the NHS is currently having its scientific debate. Alex has figured out so much more already!
Extremely personable young man. I attended his 90 day programme in London many years ago, in the very early days. He had a great team around him in the psychology and nutrition side. I know of someone who recovered following that course but many didn't. It was fun though.
Another excellent and resourse-packed interview. One thing I would say I that Alex repeatedly said that he hadn't planned this as his life's work, but I disagree. On a soul level, it's very clear that both of you DID plan this, as I believe, so many of us that are suffering and learning along the way did ❤️
I'm so glad you enjoyed this and great insight ❤
I love that you consciously engage with people that challenge your narrative! It's so important if you want to find truth rather than comfortably confirm your own opinion!
I have your book Realan and now I've bought Alex's book too . Thank goodness for your knowledge and belief that we will all recover from ME and or long covid
Thank you, Ella! 💓💓💓
I am definitely an achiever plus controller of everything around me to feel safe and didn’t even realise really, or did I??
I have, despite around 30 yrs of issues and problems health wise and 20 yrs of emotional health issues achieved all of my life goals (rental house portfolio 😅, place abroad which is the absolute best possible, no work and money in the bank). I am still trying to achieve perfection in everything I do, my home, my body and my looks (I’m 53 and look 10 yrs younger with a body that looks 20 yrs younger) so now with this knowledge I can hopefully start to rest and say no to myself after listening to this! I don’t need to be perfect and achieve perfection as it’s exhausting and maybe my ME/CFS will subside with everything else I do!! Oh I’m a perfectionist at knowing all about the nervous system and everything that helps, supplements, general health and diet, fasting and a whole lot of other things too. No wonder I’m exhausted all the time!!! 😅
Probably one of the best interviews you have done…
Omg the personality traits… at least 4 of them is me….
Thank you, Jackie! 💓
Wow!! This man is fantastic. He explains things so well. I will be buying his book.
Thanks Raelan and Alex. This is such an amazing interview with so much great information. My trigger was a chiropractor neck and spine adjustment. I was a nurse one day and debilitated and bedbound the next with pots syndrome and mecfs. I love that Alex speaks on subtypes, because I think we each may have something different fueling the illness. And oh my!! I think I fit all of those personalities. My whole life I was a helper, achiever, perfectionist, controller etc. I thought I was a successful, responsible adult 😂. I now realize I lacked boundaries and a healthy lifestyle. I can also completely relate to getting better and then going back to that type A unhealthy lifestyle and relapsing into death valley again. I am so guilty 🙋♀️ It’s so hard to break patterns that are so engraved in our being. But recovery is definitely worth putting in the hard work. 💪
Mine was to it made mine worse next day ime going to try a jaw splint hypomobility in the neck maybe the source for me check out tmj fybromyalgia connection
Fantastic interview. Alex is one of my heroes...he does amazing work and is so knowledgeable...I love his TH-cam channel. I am so glad you got to interview him. I have his book and I can't wait to read it! Thank you ❤
Thank you, Keren! Glad you enjoyed the interview ❤️❤️❤️
Are you doing better?
One minor point of difference I have: at one point was brought up the choice of prioritizing someone else's needs or your own. I often see it differently. I mean, when you have ME/CFS and little energy people aren't exactly beating down your door to meet your social needs (I mean, we are social creatures, right?). So I often see social opportunities as a choice between "Do I go out and die of exhaustion?" or "Do I stay home and die of loneliness?". And yeah, some of that may be grounded in low self-esteem, but not all of it.
Thank you Raelan and Alex! HOPE is healing!
You're so right, Stacy! ❤
Great interview, lots of information. I did Alex Howards RESET Program, a great place to start, I am currently reading his book. I found Alex's approach easy to to understand and very relatable. Love his work, so glad you got to interview him.
That's so great to hear, Loretta!
Are you doing better?
What a helpful video! I am the person who has climbed up to "zero," then fallen back into (energy) debt again, over and over and over.
Thank you Realan for your effort sharing all these stories. I am on my healing journey and your chanel helps me to sustain motivation and stay on track. Thank you 🙏
Thank you, Kestas! Rooting for your full recovery 💓💓💓
Excellent explanations! Thank you very much Alex and Raelan. Bless you
Same to you!
Once again a great and uncanny skill utilised to bring the very best out of the speaker who has been so fundamental in the clinical knowledge and treatment of this robber baron of a condition. You certainly know how to enstage you speakers.
With your diligence and skill I know that my chances of a full recovery are now significantly closer. Thank you heaps thank you 🙏
Graham, thank you as always for your incredible kindness and support. Hearing from you always brings a smile to my face and I can't wait to hear about the day that you've found your puzzle pieces and you've found your way past this. You seem like such an amazing person, sending hugs and support right back at yah 💛
Great stuff, thanks guys Alex,I’ve followed you since the very beginning (secrets to recovery, on an MP3 player. I’ve now had fibro for15 years ,and I’ll never give up,I can’t( a wife who works and two girls that I can never play with,this hell makes you feel bad as a father! Anyway one day ,thanks guys and Alex, I’ll buy the book!.I bought “ Why me” a decade ago,or more !
Currently listening to this book, grateful for it!
Such a great book, isn't it Karen ❤
Always enjoy hearing Alex talk!
excellent!!!!!!!!!!! thanks you so much. there are so many bricks in my therapeutic thinking and working and i found out... now the pieces fall into place.
This was super helpful! Broken down in a way I can understand, as I’m in the very beginning of my recovery journey from autonomic disfunction. Neuropathy, POTS, fatigue after 5 years of being ill. Every test doctors have given me comes up negative except low T. Mechanically sound yet so sick… I am finding hope and answers for the first time in 5 years. THANKS! ❤️
Hi John, I'm so sorry to hear about all of your health challenges, I hope you find your fastest path out of this ❤️
John i can relate although im just in month 4 post covid post heart rythm ablation! Low T is very interesting as im 68 and at 300. May try it for a while. This is real yes BUT imo caused by our mind so……..
Fabulous. Really helpful. Looking forward to reading the book .
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I fit in every one of those patterns. 😮 The achiever and perfectionist gave me financial abundance that I don’t get to enjoy. My time, energy, and money are consumed by trying to heal. 😢
Thank you Alex 🙏💖 and beautiful lovely Raelan ❤️💫❤️
Thank you as always Janna for your beautifully supportive and kind comments! ❤❤
This is great. Loved his breakdown of the stages. Love hearing people that know what they’re talking about with this illness. Gives so much useful info that the doctors I know have 0 knowledge on.
So glad to hear you found this helpful, Stephanie 💛
How u doing now steph. Recovered?
Thank you for this interview. Very insightful, too. Again, I relate to what Alex mentioned thinking back to my CFS healing journey. He categorized the personalities and stages so well. I'll definitely read his and your book.
That was such a great interview. Alex came across as very knowledgeable and genuine, which is so important. I really resonated with some of this, particularly currently having a missing piece that is holding me back from full recovery... Which I'm starting to think is the keto diet I am on. I believe I have a degree of insulin resistance, which this will reverse. Plus it allows for a more healing state within the body. Just before Christmas I started to randomly feel more energetic during a really busy week where I expected to feel more and more tired, and I think that after 5 /6 weeks of keto it was finally starting to make positive changes - Christmas has obviously set me back a bit, and it's been interesting to see my energy dip a bit after coming out of keto for a few days. But back on it now, so looking forward to seeing how things go. I've done a lot of work on mental health, including brain retraining, and whilst it had made a huge difference, it has not managed to get me all the way. Other dietary changes such as a plant based diet have made no difference. But I think keto was starting to really change things. It goes to show how important it is for us to use trial and error in our own recovery. Alex's note about something helping at one stage then hindering later on also really resonated. I realised that I had become fearful of exercise and of generally pushing myself too far then continually crashing. But it took me a while to realise this. It also took a long time to find exercise that was right for me and didn't set me back - dancing with my toddler for just 2 minutes a day, then building up naturally, and slowly. An approach set out by Raelan to start really small.
I write these things because I learn from other people's comments and you never know what comment might be helpful to someone else.
Raelan my whole journey of recovery (so far to around 75%) is down to you and the people you interview! Thank you so much! Just when I think there's nothing else I need to know for my recovery, you interview someone else and it turns out there was! ❤️
Jessica, this is AMAZING!!! I'm so happy to hear about your recovery and that my channel has been helpful. Thanks for taking the time to share ❤️
eating paleo-keto was ground breaking for me too!
i went from 90% bed/sofa to doing a 5mile walk in 3 months -of course that was too much too soon n i crashed n it was just b4 xmas n i realised my ex wasnt gunna return etc n i fell off the wagon. ive been mostly low carb, but not keto the 2 yrs since. This time, ive been slowly quitting things and now all i have to do is switch my macros, which i started new year's day. Im definitely 'stuck' in the 3rd stage of recovery these last few years, esp with covid making me avoidant of reintegration. the fear of a relapse is one of my bigger issues, but i also give myself internal stress with my posture and thinking patterns (childhood shizzle). Alexander technique taught me how to relax my body n use it more effectively, but its a case of constantly remembering to choose the new patterns and i have a psychotherapist my nan pays for to help address the thinking n personality stuff.
After id been keto for 3-4months, i felt like i had rocket fuel n could climb walls! haha i felt id become more intelligent than id EVER been too and bonus was i lost the 3 stone id put on whilst being 90% bed/sofa-bound :D
i would check out dr sarah myhill re ensuring ur version of keto contains all the supplements/foods to ensure optimum health. I use her sunshine salt to make my supplement bill cheaper XD
@@kimwarburton8490 That's really interesting and inspiring to hear regarding the keto diet, thanks Kim! I'll also check it the lady you mention. Have you watched Raelan's interview with Mary Ruddick? I found that very interesting. I've also listened to one of her 2 interviews on the Peak Human podcast, which was on TH-cam, which was really fascinating.
I'm sorry to hear that you've had a rough ride otherwise and that you're stuck. It's so frustrating isn't it? I get the fear thing too. I'm finding that very slowly pushing my boundaries is helpful, as well as redirecting instinctive mental reactions... Eg my toddler wakes up in the middle of the night and my instinct reaction is fear about how long I'll be up with her and how I'll cope, or not, tomorrow. And I now know that I'll be tired but that these days I can cope much much better. So after noticing that reaction, I now make sure to tell myself that it's OK, that I'll be a bit more tired tomorrow like any normal person, but that I can cope. Also that I'll be self compassionate and have rest when she naps if needed. Things like that make a difference over the long run in your energy. I'd definitely check out some kind of brain retraining if you can. Also check out Joe Dispenza's meditations, which you can listen to on TH-cam for free. Along with testimonials. Good luck!
@@jessicahayward-smith3469 Thanks! i have an issue with consistency, but i am seeing a therapist 2x a month n it really helps. Ive done dan nueffer's ANSrewire n i did gain alot from it, but its recognising the internal thinking which iv struggled with most. but thats cos the traumas/stressors have been with me since i was 4-ish or younger, so to me, its all normal lol! hence the therapist.
Iv a funny anecdote
I did NHS CBT 3yrs ago, spring 2019 n the guy tried to get me to see that im highly self-critical. i said id take it onboard n consider it, but i didnt think it likely, if anything i wasnt hard enough on myself!
It took until 1.5yrs ago for me to realise he was correct n start working on self-love deficit!
I cannot wait until ive learned all the things i need to learn that i never learnt so i can heal n become the person i shouldve always been -im kinda excited for it cos im already SOOOO much happier!
Remarkable insights. Such a comprehensive interview. Thank you both!
So glad you enjoyed it, Angela! ❤
Thank you for this video... great motivation for getting myself back on track.
One of the best interview! Thanks!!
I always think Alex Howard talks common sense. I like his calm clear communication. He seems a genuinely lovely guy. I did his CFS psychology programme. It was helpful and I still use it but it's not the whole answer to my recovery, as I'm not healed yet. Like he says, there must be other elements to my health jigsaw not successfully addressed yet.
Raelan have you thought of interviewing Toby Morrison from CFS Health? He too had CFS and runs his own recovery program. I'd be interested to hear more about him in an interview. 😊
I agree about Alex completely! And I've been working on Toby Morrison... he's a busy man but hope to get him on soon!
I’ll buy the tape Alex, gosh, it’s so hard to read when the eyes are so,so, painful, and your half brain dead with fog.I have eight books,still waiting to be read, (or re-read)Raelan, I’ve said it before, you are a gem !
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@@RaelanAgle 🙂
This was terrific thanks!
Hey Kathy! So glad you enjoyed this ❤
This is so awesome 👏
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Hey Sylvia! So glad you enjoyed this ❤❤❤
LOVE YOUR VIDEOS THANK YOU ❤
So glad you're finding them helpful! ❤
Stage one was completely elusive to me as one could easily attribute the fatigue and achy muscles to other causes like perimenopause. Often CF doesn’t become recognized until the severe or scarier symptoms of stage 2 I agree about finding balance between push and rest depending on the stage. I feel stuck at 70%. The psychological component is so critical. I’m not pacing carefully enough.
He is so right about the sensitizations as I have never had an issue with anxiety or ptsd but the reaction I had to sounds, light and smells were crazy. The digestive disruption takes a while and seemed to get worse with flares.
One of the most useful videos I’ve seen, thank you so much❤️
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So, so good and helpful!! Thank you both so much!!
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Excellent interview, thank you!
So glad you thought so, Gina! ❤
Makes a lot of sense. Will get the book.
Thanks-a really helpful interview.
Thank you, Wilma! 💓💓💓
Thank you so much!
Some people take a different disease path and are in “wired and tired” first and can’t get actual rest and need help even getting to stage 1.
Thanks!
Thank you so much, Felipe!
This was an awesome interview.
Thank you, Hen! Really appreciate it 💖💖💖
Hi Alex .. I jumped the gun.
I zipped over to Audible in the middle of listening to this interview, and ordered Decode Your Fatigue.
~ Call it 'Eager Beaver Syndrome' 😋
Question .. Being that I completed the transaction, I highly doubt that Audible would be willing to let me change my mind and purchase the material book version now.
So .. Is there a way of acquiring your free companion course - that you spoke of toward the end of the interview - with the Audible version?
If not, no worries.
Either way, I'm really looking forward to diving into your book.
Delightful interview, Raelan. 👍
Oh great question! I do know that you can return books in Audible (I've done it before) but I would imagine you could get the companion course with the Audible version as well. Hopefully we can share the details on how to do that here soon :)
@@RaelanAgle The link is mentioned in the Audible version too - in the last 35 seconds of Chapter 1 (Radical Responsibility)
What if you have all 5? 🤣😂🤣 *Raises hand*... Not so much control anymore...but yeah. Wow this was SO helpful! Thanks so much to both of you. Lots to ponder.
Thanks
Aw thanks, Graham!! ❤
Thank you for this video. I just wish you took your time while talking. I am healing my ANS and I definitely feel the difference when I watch other videos and yours. I know you must be very excited but you are rushing a lot especially at the beginning of the interview. It was a bit stressful tbh. 😔
I think it’ll benefit us and also you because I can imagine that making the interviews can be a lot of work.
Best,
Great feedback, thanks Cecilia :)
You can go into the setting on the video and slow the speed of it. Hope that helps.
@@samanthadalloo8232 Thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound natural. :)
Have you had to do with people who were fatigue from the childhood and getting worse as grew up?? When you talk about swimming, diving, travelling… my daughter has never been able to do those things without extreme fatigue
Or breast cancer. Those (because there were two), were the straw that broke me me.
I comment on your TH-cam videos you recorded in the future as well.
Great stuff. Ive read Sarno books. I hear Sarno here: being a perfectionist being a people pleaser: sounds nobel but its not! Thankyou
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What if you have asperger, add and fatigue
Awesome
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Great interview.. I was hoping that he would explain a bit more about brain retraining. I see/hear tonnes on how brain retraining seems to be helping lots of people increase their activity and that calming the nervous system seems to free up the "danger response".. I personally find it confusing, are we paying off some sort of mitochondrial debt or are we rewiring our brains out of the danger response?
That's a very good question!
Brain retraining is a specific technique, different with every brain retraining program. Is hard to explain it to someone in a few sentences. It takes way more knowledge and explainimg the steps. Understanding the triggers, how you recognize them and why does all that work.
I tried DNRS and could not folloe that technique but works for so many others.
I recovered using ANS Rewire as is a program specifically designed for CFS. That approch worked amazing for me but, I can not lie, was a lot of work.
Brain retraining is based on neuroplastisity and is a LOT of repetition.
And then each person has their individuap way of using the technique.
If you have more specific questions about ANS Rewire, let me know
iv done dan nueffer's ANSrewire and i did a hypnotherapy/NLP diploma 15+yrs ago, as well as a lifelong interest in the brain n psychology cos o my family's generational trauma n my own mental health difficulties ..
Brain retraining takes aspects from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming strategies and meditation.
Meditation gives ur brain a chance to relax the constant thinking, it teaches you how to recognise the thoughts that are limiting ur progress. It puts ur nervous system into a healing mode. The harder meditation is, the more you NEED to do it. Mindfullness meditation is the best form to use, though all types will be of benefit.
Myself, i use a mix of mantra (i deserve to care for my mind, body n soul) and dan nueffer's meditation tracks. Guided meditations on youtube are good for relaxation, but typically doesnt teach you to become self-aware
Recognition is the key thing n half the battle
When you've recognised unhelpful stress inducing thoughts, the next stage is to reframe n this is where CBT and NLP comes into play. You can find many of these resources for free online, or by buying books.
You are essentially reframing/initiating a new perspective with a strategy. CBT teaches you to question ur thinking, NLP gives u tools such as the swish technique, or anchoring.
When i was calling myself ugly, i stopped it in a few months, despite it being a lifelong thing with a simple reversal. Id auto-matically call myself ugly n then id at least 3 times repeat positive traits i could see n liked
The last stage is you want to reward yourself n recognise n celebrate your efforts and get yourself into a positive emotional state. Emotions are KEY for cementing changes.
Many people only need to do the meditations, so thats a good place to start while learning about CBT and NLP n applying those tools in a tailored approach. THey are adaptable n better when you change them up to ur individual needs after some experimentation to find what works best for YOU.
"Are we paying off some sort of mito debt or are we rewiring out of the danger response?"
Id say its a bit of both
You are calming down the nervous system, so it is less dysregulated n sending out less danger signals and learns how to relax again, while also reducing stressful thinking patterns n making personality changes such as having healthy boundries, saying no to self n others n assertiveness (typically)
This then means you have access to the energy one was wasting while in energy debt.
You are better able to digest u gain nutrients from ur food n feed ur mito's
(However, i found that i needed to switch my fuel from a carbohydrate based diet to a paleo-ketogenic one to give my mito's the boost they needed, because the mitos i did have were impoverished n were born that way. i needed to 'breed' new mito's which were healthier)
hope that helps
@@alexandraalbertz1442 how is ANS rewire different from the DNRS. I have done DNRS but I didn't have the energy to engage one hour per day. Thanks
@@majahorvat7294 totally different. I could not recognize any triggers with the DNRS approach and the videos did not have a multi lateral approach as ANS Rewore has. With ANS Rewire you have a lesson a day, so you build slowly into the knowledge and the actions plan. And most important, the rewore technique with ANS Rewire does not in life any visualizations exercise as DNRS (or Gupta) does. I lost a year in disappointment after I tried DNRS until I finally was willing to give ANS a try.
Oh...but at least DNRS has a good return policy. So at 6 months mark ( not earlier and under a year I think) you can get a (almost) full refund
First time achiever pattern😅(grad school recover in 3 months)
Second time helper pattern(caregiver... 1 month in)
It runs in families. It has strong links to ehlers danlos
I thought the Enneagram might come up. His uncle covered that a lot.
I love Alex's work and I actually bought his course, but I am afraid that long covid and some post viral illnesses probably have bio markers and could benefit from anti virals / anti biotics, etc, is just that science has not got the change to put money and research on it yet. I pray for those folks that have tried everything (including mind/body theory) but still don't find an answer
R: Do you still think that the root cause of your illness was a virus? 😉
Hi Anna, I think it was a perfect storm of a lot of things (stress, poor diet, over exercising, etc.) but that the virus was the final straw.
first : )
Another one with the "positive thinking" attitude. Curioser and curioser....
Lessened to this. It’s clear that what you are talking about is CFS. Not ME. It’s so disturbing. We don’t have a sleep a lot start.
What is the difference in your mind? I think there is no official difference between CFS and ME in the official description. It is one thing.
But I personally think that there are people in this category that have all sorts of different issues. If that wouldn't be the case, major number of people would recover by now using strategies found online.
@@djVania08 Yes, major have CFS, causing sleepiness and fatigue and they will get help from online stuff like this. ME is something else and when one find a cure the hole world will know of whom finding that cure will get revealed and payed.
@@sandyjenssen1128 Again, Sandy. Point me to something official. Because from what I have seen, nobody separates CFS and ME. It's all together.
@@djVania08 And well known. You have to have PEM in order to get diagnosed with ME duo to Canada criteria. CFS not.
@@sandyjenssen1128 To be diagnosed with CFS/ME, you gotta have PEM. At the end of the day, PEM is yet another symptom of this bucket of diseases. The body has energy / regeneration problem.
So it still didn't answer my question.
Where I can agree with you is when people talk about chronic fatigue. Because chronic fatigue is symptom not a diagnosis.
chronic fatigue and airpods very ignorant indeed
Thanks
Aw Keren, thank you so much!! I hope you are enjoying Mexico ❤️
Thanks Raelan! I'm hoping the payment worked as I tried many times before and it didnt. Please let me know if it didn't 🙏