Alien Body, Alien Mind

Coping mechanisms differ from person to person as the body compensates in varied areas to deal with the illness of CFS. For me I went through a severe period of starvation due to poor digestion. I also had a lack of respect for my body, and the attitude I shouldn’t be such a baby and should tough it out. So even though I hurt like hell and was exhausted, I just kept on going. I worked long hours and my life style created tons of stress that broke me down over time.

This had a snowball effect where my health problems were concerned. As my problems mounted, rolling down the hill of life, they grew and grew. From the outside it looked like one big problem – chronic fatigue – but it was actually layers upon layers that contributed to my ill health. These were some of my layers:

Poor digestion
Vision impaired
Adrenal exhaustion
Shortness of breath
Insomnia
Hormonal imbalances
Lacking essential amino acids
Immune system T3 and T4’s problems
Magnesium deficiency
Muscle atrophy

For some reason my body was not healing itself anymore, it was not recovering and I was not ever feeling rested after a night’s sleep. It was as if my body was no longer running normally and reacting to things in such an alien way that even my doctors could do nothing about it.

Oh my gosh, did I go through a barrage of tests. First it was tests on my head for headaches, then on my stomach for indigestion, and then test for my blood and nutritional issues. My cardiovascular system was tested. I walked a treadmill. My heart was working fine I just couldn’t walk the treadmill very long with out collapsing with exhaustion. (This coming from a gal that had been very athletic all her life –what in the world was going on!)

Nothing was jumping out as a main cause that they could treat to alleviate my problems. So they turned to testing my mind, perhaps it was depression or some other psychological problem. Thank god in the end they decided all my marbles were still in place and it wasn’t depression either.

They sent me home, telling me, “You have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. There is nothing we can do for you.” So there I was trapped in this damnable body and because of that I was to start thinking outside the box. If I was to live with this alien body, it was time I started to think with an alien mind to match!

I knew I was going to get well and I was going to try any form of medicine I could, whether it was through medical practitioners or different types of Asian medicine or even naturopathic/holistic treatments. It was just a matter of time.