Healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia: Recent Episodes
The Optimum Health Clinic
The world-leading team at The Optimum Health Clinic offer strategies to support healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
Therapeutic Coach Alex Howard talks about the importance of finding ways to stay inspired on the recovery path, including listening to stories of people who have reached milestones or made recoveries over various hardships. Having the mindset that improvement or recovery might be possible changes how motivated you might be to make helpful decisions and take positive action.
Alex continues his Ask Me Anything list of questions from participants on Facebook and the Facebook Community Group - this week covering issues around how to afford treatment and deal with HR and benefits from work, building up confidence in stage 3 of recovery, and what can cause relapse after a full recovery was made. Watch the AMA Part 1 at https://youtu.be/bwhVs9jhkSk Watch the AMA Part 2 at https://youtu.be/GKVgdBqEmuk
"Courage isn't the absence of fear, courage is the ability to take action and keep moving forward in spite of the fear." On the eve of announcing the Fatigue Super Conference 2019, Alex shares a moment on the launching pad about taking risks and trying new things - and we hope you'll enjoy what's coming up next for The Optimum Health Clinic. Find out more about the Fatigue Super Conference at fatiguesuperconference dot com
As we turn into the New Year and think about the goals we want to set, Alex gives advice on the kid of achievable goals that can be explored with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, and how to take into consideration what stage of recovery you are in to make realistic resolutions.
Alex addresses a common worry amongst patients - especially with the recent Fatigue Super Conference - that when starting a new program or course there can be a feeling of too much overwhelm. Alex offers some tips on how to tackle overwhelm and also shares his vision moving forward with new short filmed sessions with patients
Alex offers some tips on how to approach the holiday season as strategically as you can by communicating your needs, acknowledging your boundaries, pacing your energy and relax and have fun based on your protocols and parameters with where you are. (recorded 2018)
Alex answers questions directly from users on Facebook, discussing the achiever type and the inner critic, how to address anger and resentment with ME CFS, and ways to work with trauma other than EFT.
Solving the individual puzzle of ME CFS and/or Fibromyalgia for each patient is a very complex problem in the personalised medicine approach. In this video, Alex explains why it would be beneficial to work with a practitioner specialising in interpreting tests and personalising your therapy for your best healing journey.
Alex takes questions from The Optimum Health Clinic community group about recovering from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia and updates about the work at the clinic. Alex answers a questions about the immune system response in ME CFS, the role of the maladaptive stress response, and gives an update on the research projects at the OHC.
Alex discusses the importance of taking a step back to look at the bigger habits or themes in our life that cause ongoing stress that need to be addressed. So many of the tools for recovery are small daily habits to help calm the nervous system and support the healing process - but larger problems like chemical or mould exposure, stressful relationships, or difficult life circumstances need to take precedence and steps in our attention to help us move forward in a meaningful way.
Being able to understand our own issues, limitations, and challenges helps us find the best techniques to allow us to heal and grow. Having a lighthearted approach to ourselves, our faults and our weaknesses can empower us to have better relationships with ourselves and others. Alex suggests looking into The Enneagram and Spiral Dynamics as tools to help you place where you may be in terms of your values and where you might be able to grow.
In this Facebook Live session, Alex dispels the idea that we have to become perfect before we can heal. There are SOME issues that will need to be resolved, or at least attended to to remove some blocks to recovery, and to get you into a healing state.
James became ill with ME CFS in 2010, so ill he was bed-bound and his father had to carry him to the hospital. With support from his family, James slowly has recovered to 85% over 9 years by listening to his body and pacing carefully, and is now sharing what he has learned about healthy eating with his successful social media brand, Healthy Living James. While James was not a patient with the OHC, he found inspiration from our OHC Live videos and reached out to us to share his story. Find out more about Healthy Living James at https://healthylivingjames.co.uk/ Find out more about The Optimum Health Clinic at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com
Alex talks about the difference between using the tools to feel better and focusing on the state of mind we are in while using them. Having an awareness of where we are emotionally can help us loosen the grip on the effort we are making and we can practice our tools from a better place mentally.
Alex talks to Helen Lynam, previously the Director of Nutrition at The Optimum Health Clinic, about our approach to supplements, why we recommend what we do, how individualised each patient's protocol is, and why we use the suppliers we do.
Motivation is usually stronger when we are moving towards things that we want, versus trying to avoid negative consequences. Finding inspiration to move towards a reward will help you feel a lot clearer about your actions than trying to achieve something simply to avoid pain. Are you waiting for something worse to happen before you will feel motivated to make change, or can you find a positive reason for working towards feeling a little better now?
Paulie from the Netherlands shares her story and recovery journey through ME/CFS. Beginning as a teenager, Paulie suffered from anxiety, IBS and severe fatigue, which fluctuated for a few years before steadily becoming worse. A friend had told her about The Optimum Health Clinic when Paulie could no longer stand unassisted, and she began her healing journey. Now 90% recovered Paulie has a new outlook on life, is able to continue working her career in nutrition science, has better tools to manage expectations, and continues to improve her physical symptoms.
Finding the balance between being sensible about our recovery and being very driven and disciplined with our tools can be a challenge. Navigating the healing journey requires a good awareness of our bodies and our needs in the moment and the ability to organise aspects of our lives that will keep our lifestyle steady during recovery. Sometimes making deep and lasting changes for life may not be as thrilling as the idea of it is - and here Alex offers some guidance on how to navigate the patience and excitement of making real change.
Alex talks to patient Paddy who at the time of this recording was in the late reintegration stage of the recovery process from ME/CFS. Paddy discusses the onset of his symptoms and what helped him most through working with The Optimum Health Clinic
The isolation of chronic illness can change and reset many of our relationships. The people and activities that used to make sense for our life no longer fit the same way. Alex discusses the importance of making a conscious effort to build new relationships that fit the context of our life during and after the intense experience recovery from ME CFS and/or fibromyalgia. (Nov 2018)
Commitment and surrender are two keywords that are essential in the psychological approach to healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. Both words can be a double-edged sword, and finding the balance in each is essential to being aware of achiever patterns and practising acceptance. Alex also addresses a question about the focus on psychological topics in the OHC Live sessions, and Alex explains his background in psychology and the issue with getting too specific with Functional Medicine when each case is unique.
Gemma shares her recovery story with Alex, from starting to feel ill with a viral-like illness she couldn't recover from to acknowledging and working with her achiever patterns in order to relax and recover. Gemma shares what tools worked for her and how her sustained practice over a few years helped her reach full recovery. (Nov 2018)
Founder of The Optimum Health Clinic Alex Howard discusses the benefits and pitfalls of technology as both useful and overly stimulating tools. The importance of being in a calm healing state is essential to recovery from ME/CFS and if you decide to practice mindfulness around your technology use it can be a great benefit to making sure you don't get too overloaded by it. A great way to know if media is helping you is to take a moment to ask, is this helping me right now? (recorded Nov 2018)
In this week's Facebook Live, founder of the Optimum Health Clinic Alex Howard uses the fable of the tortoise and the hare as a metaphor for recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. (recorded October 2018)
Just as multiple factors often are involved when one falls ill with ME/CFS (the overloaded boat), the process of recovery also includes multiple factors, methods, and variables to re-build health. The practitioners of The Optimum Health Clinic use an integrative approach to craft individualised programs to help patients during different stages or recovery with variable symptoms to help them move forward in the best way possible.
Once we begin to do work on our own patterns and issues, we can feel like we're more "messed up" than other people - Alex reminds us that everyody has issues, but not everyone is looking at them or working on them. In working on your practices be kind to yourself and remember that nobody has everything figured out.
Energy depleting relationships tend to follow a pattern of having to constantly support or hold up another person in a co-dependent relationship. Helper types tend to use their energy attending to other people before themselves. Alex discusses some ways to recognize if this pattern is taking place in your life and how to start to build up your own resources and your own well of self-importance on the path of recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
Being chronically ill can mean all of our conscious attention is usually on the things that are not working. Alex gives the suggestion to also give mindful attention to the things in the body that are still working properly.
Alex Howard discusses understanding our own needs, including emotional needs, and how we might look to get those needs met. Alex discusses the tendency for Helper types to put other people's needs first and how we can start to prioritize our own. Once we recognize what we need, and learn how to ask for help and/or develop resourcefulness can be an important piece of supporting recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
Following up on the importance of the basics, Alex discusses the importance of practices - the practical activities we need on a day to day basis to encourage the recovery process. He also emphasizes the importance of following different practices during the right time and stage of the recovery process.
Alex talks about the importance of the fundamental basics of recovery in ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia - deep rest, staying in a healing state, and fundamental nutritional basics. After we start to recover with the fundamentals we can start to look at more complex and interesting reasons why we might struggle to reach full recovery. Find out more about the Optimum Health Clinic at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/
Alex mentions a simplified view of two different kinds of pacing based on data and rational planning, versus the more intuitive body based way of pacing in the moment and what might be better for a certain stage of recovery. Find out more about The Optimum Health Clinic at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/
After a holiday with his family, Alex talks about returning to London with a fresh perspective on some problems and situations - and how having a new state can help us develop new perceptions of our experiences. What can we do that helps change our state, and thus our perspective on the recovery path? See more about the OHC approach at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/
Alex expands on his 5 P's in recovery: Practice, Patience, Persistance, Perserverence, Precision. These 5 P's can be used to help patients between sessions with the clinic and working with techniques and changes. See more about the Optimum Health Clinic at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/
Marie from the Psychology Team talks about how to recognize our inner critic thoughts and how to be our own best coach and support system.
As we turn into the New Year and think about the goals we want to set, Alex gives advice on the kid of achievable goals that can be explored with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, and how to take into consideration what stage of recovery you are in to make realistic resolutions. View the Archive of Facebook Live Posts at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/2019/01/archive-of-facebook-live-posts/
Alex offers some tips on how to approach the holiday season as strategically as you can by communicating your needs, acknowledging your boundaries, pacing your energy and relax and have fun based on your protocols and parameters with where you are.
Alex expands on last week's introduction to building a positive mindset in recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia - including the increased emphasis on building a brand new mindset that didn't exist before getting ill.
Inspired by the World Cup and the Thai cave rescues, Alex talks about cultivating a mindset through hardship that allows for a helpful interpretation of events and our prospects for the future.
After the OHC fundraiser at the high ropes course, Alex talks about facing fear on the path to recovery from ME CFS and Fibromyalgia. Find out more about The Optimum Clinic and our integrative medicine methods, our research, and testimonials at http://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/
Alex discusses the benefits of learning the language of your body - being able to tune in to the head, the heart, and the body becomes essential to listening to your body needs in each moment.
Alex interviews Emma Donohoe - presenter of the BBC documentary M.E. and me. Emma discusses her recovery including the part the Optimum Health Clinic played in her journey.
Alex discusses how focusing on the present moment allows us to get into a healing state, and how avoiding being present can snowball into catastrophic thinking that causes us more stress. The practice of meditation or mindfulness can help calm the nervous system and bring us back to now.
Alex acknowledges the challenge of living day to day with pain and frustration, and offers some thoughts on how to remain hopeful and to continue to encourage your future dreams.
Alex talks about the value in the feeling of giving up, and how to work with this feeling on the path of recovery. Having a plan for recovery is essential, but you can also give yourself a break when you feel overwhelmed or don't know what to do next by taking a few mindful moments.
Alex explores finding a balance between a realistic view of where you are and how your feelings of positivity and negativity about the future might guide your decision making. He encourages an honesty about the present moment and a hopeful view for the future.
Alex talks about the different steps and stages of recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia and what kind of energy we may feel if we’re ready to increase our activity.
CEO Alex Howard discusses the OHC's approach to cultivating self-worth when the roles you held prior to getting ill have changed.
Understanding and being able to witness the kind of anxiety we're expieriencing is the first step to addressing it and easing the symptom. Physical Anxiety types can be contributed to blood sugar issues, having a mitochondria crash, adrenal anxiety, or hormone issues. Anxiety triggered by emotional overwhelm can be caused by difficult life experiences, and current stressful situations can also be a contribution, or ongoing difficult emotional patterns that we are having trouble processing. Mental anxiety is when the mind is overstimulated and over activates the nervous system. Environmental anxiety can be caused by spending too much time in one place, or also can be caused by being overstimulated by busy or loud environments. Physical, environmental, emotional and mental anxiety patterns can be addressed in different ways, but are also often linked so starting with one tool may help if you're uncertain.
When our primary symptom is fatigue, it's clear that getting deep, effective rest is a crucial part of the recovery process. When the maladaptive stress response adds too much stress to be able to relax deeply, we can intend to rest without actually achieving deep rest. The OHC approach works to calm the nervous system enough that the tired/wired process surrenders to legitimate relaxed restful states. At stage 1 we need to prioritise deep rest, in stage 2 we need more activity to calm and ground the new energy anxiety, and at stage 3 people find it easier to get deep rest when they're able to do more physical activity.
Alex talks about people pleasing as a habit of the helper type that puts other peoples' needs before our own. Becoming aware of the pattern and its impact is the beginning of changing the behavior. If you go to great lengths to avoid conflict or get your self-worth from doing things for other people, you might find it worthwhile to explore this pattern in yourself. Understanding this pattern as a helper type with ME/CFS can help us avoid over-extending our energy in unhelpful ways. Use the sensitivity you have to sense what other people need and turn that around now on to yourself to sense what you need.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses getting moving without pushing in ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia recovery. The Achiever subtypes particularly can get caught up in over-doing patterns, so we need a new way to approach to break old habits and cultivate new helpful habits. Setting new goals versus recognising the achiever pattern is that a healthy mindset will make our new goal feel good, the achiever pattern mindset will feel like pressure. Recognising the healthy approach to a new goal is important so that we don't end up doing something out of force or pushing through when we don't have the wellness to accomplish something.
Psychology Practitioner Marie Fleming talks about how to bring in a sense of enjoyment to your day during the recovery process, even though illness can be so challenging and uncomfortable. Being able to create a moment of enjoyment can relieve a little bit of suffering, without just trying to pretend to be happier.
OHC practitioner Marie discusses creating healthy boundaries, especially in relation to helper subtypes. Being able to say no to people or to tasks when we need to prioritise our own healing process is an important lesson in creating healthier relationships and making sure we're setting ourselves up for recovery.
After developing a stable baseline, Alex elaborates on how to bounce the boundaries and increase the energy envelope. He uses the metaphor of being on the offensive (pushing the boundaries with activity/new foods/new supplements/new tools) versus being on the defensive (retreat, recovery, resting, stabilising). This is for a very particular stage of recovery (later stage 2/stage 3) when you are able to remain in a regular baseline without crashing, and having productive rest in order to then play with pacing.
What allows us to feel calm, confident, and embodied is making peace with the sense of uncertainty, making peace with not knowing what's going to happen. Alex talks about developing confidence and a sense of safety in the body versus trying to intellectualise solutions for potential challenges. Stress and worry use up energy that we need to heal - and in ME CFS and Fibromyalgia we need to remove any unnecessary energy drains in order to build up our systems.
Marie from our psychology team shares a little bit about her ME/CFS recovery story, and clarifies more about why the mind and body connection is so important in recovery from ME, CFS, Fibromyalgia (and generally all forms of stress and chronic illness). Limiting our approach to only aspects of the mind (or just on psychology) becomes extremely limited if we don't include information from the body - we will be neglecting the intelligence of our somatic experiences.
Ignoring our wants and needs can lead our minds and bodies to continually get louder until we finally listen and pay attention to what is currently happening. Making space for and being mindful of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and symptoms can actually calm the system down because it doesn't need to trigger the maladaptive stress response to get our attention. Becoming aware of our thoughts and symptoms is the first practice in learning how to understand our bodies and learn how to best respond next.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses saying YES to you on the recovery path from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. It can feel like we're saying 'no' to just about everything when we're on the recovery path - to people who want to socialise, or to foods we want to eat, or to activities or achievements we want to accomplish - but Alex wants to reframe this mindset by reminding you that saying NO to so many things means saying YES to making healing the priority.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses the 4 fundamentals of recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia from which to keep track of the recovery journey and build tools to move forward. 1. Do we have a baseline? (activity levels, pacing, a place from which to build) 2. Are we making progress over time? (Less crashes, more ups, quicker recoveries) 3. Protect the progress! 4. Accelerate the progress by tackling various symptoms or co-morbidities
After discussing what is possible from recovery, and exploring things that may help someone recover from ME CFS, some people have a rejection or resistance to the idea that recovery is possible. It can be devastating to get your hopes up, which is why some people choose instead not to believe in recovery from ME CFS and Fibromyalgia. Contributing to this is the stigma and misinformation about the illness to begin with, and therefor an inability to begin to understand how to solve the problem. Alex discusses the importance of realising that recovery can include everything from improving quality of life to a full remission of symptoms, and that there is still too much unknown to state that every single person can recover. The Optimum Health Clinic seeks to solve as many pieces of the ME CFS puzzle under control to ease symptoms, take the load off the body, and support the body's natural healing abilities to improve quality of life.
Alex offers some advice on how to set goals that make you feel like you're winning - and how to avoid resolutions that cause worsening of symptoms. Recovery takes time, and the best goals to set on the recovery path are small, achievable goals that help us feel like we're making genuine progress.
A complex illness like ME CFS can exhibit many different symptoms and co-morbidities. Being able to make sense of the cycles and systems affected can help us find pieces to work with that keep patients from healing. The body has a natural tendencey towards healing so we try to discover all the pieces of the ME/CFS puzzle and delicately try to balance the systems to alleviate symptoms and begin healing. What in your life is potentially obstructing your body's natural capacity towards healing?
It can be a real challenge to commit to future plans when we're still working on our recovery from ME CFS or Fibromyalgia. Alex offers some tips about how to handle social commitments when you really don't know if you'll be well enough to attend.
In this short Facebook Live session, Alex explains the importance of making recovery the most important goal in your day to day life, especially in the early stages. If we have multiple goals or priorities it can put our health in a back seat when we should be making choices that are best for our body and recovery. Are you giving your recovery the priority it needs for it to be the thing that progresses and moves in your life?
Through his personal experience and extensive education in various psychological approaches, Alex offers his recommendations for what kind of psychology work might be right for you depending on where you are on your recovery journey. There are many different tools to work with the past, the present, and the future - and the recovery path requires some combination of each of these, and this will evolve as you move through the healing journey. Do you feel like it's more important for you right now to deal with the past, practice being more in the present, or developing a helpful vision of the future?
The advice, "listen to your body" sounds like it should be easy, but it isn't quite as simple as it seems. We often get conflicting messages from our body and it can be tricky to decide which message to listen to. Alex offers advice on how to make the next best informed decision based on all the information available.
Alex explores "Trauma", major disruptive life events, and "trauma", small or developmental patterns that can effect our well-being. By understanding and working with our own traumas, we can develop healthier relationships with ourselves and our experience in life. One benefit of addressing trauma can be calming the nervous system in order to heal the body more efficiently. The Optimum Health Clinic does not endorse the idea that ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia are trauma based illnesses, only that the ongoing stress of unprocessed trauma can inhibit the healing process.
Becoming familiar with and identifying thoughts of our energy-depleting "inner critic" can be huge in helping us identify unhelpful thought patterns or beliefs that we can stop and change. Changing the tone of our inner mental chatter to one that is positive and caring can free up emotional energy and help us make better choices. Alex also offers some tips on how to handle the inner critic once you recognise it.
The mental pattern of Windows ME means we run every thought and activity through the filter of having ME. This means every situation can cause stress if we continually question what the future holds for us which can increase the constant maladaptive stress response. At stage 1 Windows ME can help us find our boundaries, but beyond that it can start to cause problems.
Mental tennis is a mental pattern that can make decision making feel impossible. In ME/CFS our nervous systems are already over-stimulated, and when it comes to deciding how to spend our energy, patients can feel stuck in a tug-of-war over how to move forward and make the "right" choice. Alex offers some tips on how to recognise and address mental tennis to get clarity on making a choice in the moment with mindfulness and checking-in in a new or different way.
Alex discusses why patients in the nutrition program can benefit from also doing the psychology work with The Optimum Health Clinic. We do not in any way promote the idea that ME/CFS or Fibromyalgia are psychological illnesses, but that chronic illness is both difficult, stressful, and at times traumatising, and that ME/CFS in particular causes over-arousal, over stimulation, and the maladaptive stress response. Our psychology work can help reduce the stress load and calm the nervous system and help take the load off of the immune system.
The recovery path can take so much discipline and organisation that we can sometimes forget that a balanced life includes play, fun, and joy. Alex talks about finding a balance between our Helper/Acheiver/Perfection types and our childlike inclinations for enjoyment. Recovering from ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia can feel like serious business, and remembering to introduce playful activities can really help on the journey to wellness.
We now know that approaching healing from ME CFS from a "pushing" motivation can make everything worse, so willpower for recovery in ME CFS and Fibromyalgia needs a new meaning. Pushing to work harder and do more will not work for recovering from these illnesses, but we may need determination in other ways to find acceptance and allow ourselves to rest and take steps to get into a healing state. Willpower on the recovery path is doing LESS, to stop doing something you want to do when what you need to do is stop and rest.
Alex explores the psychological subtypes (Anxiety, Achiever, Helper) that can play a part in remaining ill with ME CFS, and how noticing these patterns can help us put ourselves first and notice the thought behaviours that are unhelpful in our recovery. Beyond recovery from ME CFS, understanding psychological subtypes will help us to grow and evolve throughout our lives in various challenging circumstances. Psychological subtypes aren't unique to chronic illness, and the work we put into understanding our own inner critic and neurosis will help us well into healthy life.
Sometimes we need to ask for help from friends, family, and professionals - Alex discusses how to notice what our needs are and how to reach out for assistance or support. Whether it's talking about our experience or getting practical help with physical tasks, learning how to ask for help on the recovery path from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia can be immensely useful.
When we start making some progress on our journey, the recovery process can feel incredibly slow and we start to wonder what exactly is possible from recovery from ME, CFS or Fibromyalgia. Alex explains that you do not need to be perfect biologically or psychologically in order to recover - and you can easily underestimate what is possible in the long term.
Alex Howard discusses deep rest in ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia recovery. The maladaptive stress response in MECFS keeps the nervous system wired, and mindful rest can help us recover the parasympathetic nervous system. Noticing our personality patterns can help us recognise when we aren't allowing for deep rest when our mind wants us to push through and overexert.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses being methodical: taking time when starting new supplements, treatments, or movements in order to see what is helping on the road to recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses how the maladaptive stress response can keep us in a state where we are unaware of what our body really needs. Being able to relax into your exhaustion can take practice, but being able to deeply rest is necessary for healing to take place.
The Helper subtytpe in the Optimum Health Clinic model is one type of characteristic that can be looked at in terms of habits and beliefs that may contribute to becoming or staying ill with ME, CFS or Fibromyalgia. Exploring self-worth and supporting the self can be helpful tools to practice to overcome unhealthy helper patterns.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses gratitude and comparing ourselves to others. While being able to acknowledge our loss and difficulty is an important part of being in our body, it is also an extremely useful practice to be grateful for what we do have and the things that are working here and now.
Alex Howard discusses SOFA HEROES: Because you have to be a superhero to live with ME, CFS or Fibromyalgia. The Sofa Heroes fundraising campaign will raise money for our double-blind study with the University of Surrey on the effectiveness of The Optimum Health Clinic Method for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia in order to make the treatment available through the NHS or covered by insurance. See how you can start a Sofa Heroes campaign at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/fundraising/ Read about the proposed study at https://www.theoptimumhealthclinic.com/case-for-support/
Alex discusses the limitations of psychological approaches and miracle recovery stories from psychological therapies for ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. Through the Optimum Health Clinic, the patient gets both psychological support to encourage healing, and also functional medicine to look at various biological systems that may be out of balance. Exploring the Lightning Process and Mickel Therapy and Reverse Therapy, EFT and more, and their places in some parts of recovery, Alex explains how they can help with parts of the puzzle, but is not the full picture for the broadest patients with ME CFS.
Alex describes the slippery slope of self-medicating or taking supplement advice from non-professionals. With personalised care from The Optimum Health Clinic, a nutritionist can help you discover exactly which supplements will be most helpful for your specific needs.
What we need when the going is challenging and difficult, is support, inspiration, and motivation - and there are few situations as challenging as living with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. Alex discusses various ways of cultivating inspiration with the help of practitioners or self-inspired resources. Watch The Secrets to Recovery Movie at http://www.secretstorecovery.com/movie/
On the verge of the release of the Secrets to Recovery film, Alex reflects on the process of recovery from the patients that have been interviewed, and also the process of making a film - in that these projects take teamwork and collaboration. ME/CFS can feel like a very lonely journey, but Alex encourages being aware of all the members of your team helping you on your path to recovery.
When we've invested so much hope and energy into various methods in an effort to recovered, it can be challenging to try new approaches. The Optimum Health Clinic takes a look at all various stages of recovery and can help you develop a personalised plan for sustainable health.
Sustainable recovery is the ultimate goal for the patients of The Optimum Health Clinic. Alex discusses the problems with miracle recovery stories and treatments that offer an overnight recovery. He also discusses the problem with "positive thinking" as an unsustainable practice. Realistic goals and a long term sustained practice with good habits will build recovery and tools to use for a lifetime.
While filming patients for the latest Secrets to Recovery documentary, Alex is reminded of the perserverance and hope that patients and family members have on the journey to recovery. Watch the film at http://www.secretstorecovery.com/movie/
Identifying when we might be trying too hard to be the perfect patient will help us recognize the achiever pattern and how it might actually hinder our progress. Recovery from ME/CFS requires us to recognize when we're trying to push instead of stay in a healing state and wait until we have genuine energy to do more. Alex offers some tips on how to recognize the achiever patterns, how it can help and hinder, and what to do when the pattern hijacks our recovery.
With an isolating illness like ME, CFS or Fibromyalgia, it's important to find a way to stay connected to some sort of community. Alex gives some tips on how relationships may change and how to connect to new people on the recovery path.
Alex discusses reaching a point in our recovery when energy is coming back and we're ready to do a little more activity. The process of finding our baseline without post-exertional-malaise (or delayed fatigue response) is called bouncing the boundaries. Bouncing the boundaries with movement and exercise may be most helpful in the later phases of stage 2 (tired and wired) and during stage 3 (reintegration).
Alex discusses The Optimum Health Clinic's approach to psychology and the philosophy behind the benefits of certain psychological aspects on the road to recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. Alex also addresses the controversial ideas around treating ME/CFS with psychology, discusses some specific methods and their limitations, and encourages a strong multi-approach individualised plan including functional medicine for each patient.
A diagnosis with ME, CFS or Fibromyalgia can be confusing to explain to friends and family when the invisible illness is so misunderstood in society. Alex talks about different ways you can help the people around you understand your illness and how they can help you manage and recover.
A more restorative sleep is essential in recovery from ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia and in this session, Alex talks about sleep as a reflection of our mind state during the day - and how we can take steps during the day to make sure we have a better, more restorative sleep at night.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses whether it's possible to make a full recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia including the controversy and complexity of the group of illnesses under the umbrella of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia.
In this Facebook Live recording CEO Alex Howard discusses cultivating positive habits for ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia recovery.
Alex Howard, founder of The Optimum Health Clinic, discusses goal setting for recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.