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.