Watch The Video of Ted Sharing His ANS REWIRE Experience (COMING SOON)

Video Transcript

Early illness, remission and relapse

Hi, my name is Catherine, and I h-had, have had CFS, or I had CFS since 1981, which is 43 years ago. I'm 75 now. And back in those days, of course, I wasn't even diagnosed for about five years, and then I was told that I would never be well and never recover. But I, I went into remission after four years, which I think is a bit unusual, and I felt so well that I got another job in teaching, which was a pretty full-on job with involving travel to and from.

And not long after I started work, I, I, I started getting symptoms again, which really puzzled me 'cause I thought, "Well, whatever had been wrong with me, it, it's, it's no longer there." And I just kept pushing through and, and going part-time eventually for two and a half years till I collapsed again as I-- and was as ill as I had been in the beginning.

Symptoms and severity

And that means that I had all the symptoms that I've ever heard of. Fatigue, of course, head and eyes and back pain, brain fog, tinnitus, extreme sensitivity to light and sound, and to any stimulation. So fatigue also after any kind of activity, cognitive or physical or social. I also had very severe flu-like symptoms, so that whenever I got them, I'd think, before I was diagnosed, "Oh, it's just the flu."

And then, but it wouldn't get better and... or, or I'd, I'd improve after bed rest, and then they'd come back again. So it was really, really puzzling. I had POTS, I had hypoglycemia, I had anxiety because anxiety about being ill, about my future, about finances, about my children. I had three children. They were eight, 10, and 12 when I became ill.

I had food intolerances, extreme dysbiosis, which involved constipation and poor motility. I had restless legs- I don't-- I had insomnia. I, I, I think I've covered just about o- the main symptoms anyway. There have been so many over the, over the 40, 43 years almost. Before the onset, I should say also, it was a sudden onset in 1981.

Sudden onset and years in bed

I was standing in front of a class of, an English class in a high school that I was teaching. I suddenly felt extremely ill. I had to sit on the desk. I had to leave the class. I had to go home, and I was in bed for the next four years. So just in a darkened room, very difficult to even walk to the toilet, the bathroom, whatever.

Couldn't do anything. I was married at the time, and my husband had to take care of me and the children and everything for, for years while I was in bed until I eventually went into remission. It was when I got diagnosed and told that I was, would never recover. Before that, I had been gaslit. I'd been sent to a psychiatrist, got addicted to a drug that I had to withdraw from.

Treatments and attempts to manage symptoms

So over those years, I tried every treatment from acupuncture, natur- naturopaths, herbalists, kinesiologists, a dietician. I tried all kinds of diets. I had vitamin C injections. One of my lovely daughters and her partner took me to Brussels even to see a professor who was supposed to be a world expert. He gave me something called GCMaf, which was very expensive apart from the trip, and it had helped other people.

That's why I went, but it didn't help me. I also was seeing a, a, a GP who was very caring because his wife had the illness, and he only treated people with CFS. But his approach was purely scientific in terms of the symptoms, and he prescribed medication. Now, that helped me to stabilize to some extent, but I was on lots of meds, some antidepressants for sleeping particularly, all kinds of medication, some for the POTS symptoms.

So I stabilized, but I, I never recovered to the point that I could work as much as I wanted to. But I did manage to travel in my 50s, working around the symptoms by myself, and I think that was a very positive experience, even though it was a challenge. Now I'm up to my 60s. I had some adverse life experiences, s- some deaths in the family and, and, and so on, some financial issues, and so my health went downhill a bit in my 60s.

But then after that, I was quite ill again and I just, I, I had, I had by then developed a technique of going to bed and lying down for an hour between around 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon, and I found that that helped me stabilize for the rest of the day in the evening. Not so that I could work, but just so that I could be with the family, go for walks, do little walks, do things like that.

Previous brain training and discovering ANS REWIRE

So I kind of did my own version of pa- pacing because there was nothing. I had absolutely no information about anything that I had subsequently found out. And then in about 2012, I think it was, I heard about DNRS, and I'm not sure how. And I did the-- I religiously did the program every day for an hour for six months with absolutely no result.

And then I, I happened across-- to come across Dan on YouTube by accident and heard him talking about recovery and his program and his book, and I immediately bought the book. I read the book slowly because that was difficult, and I was convinced, and I was, I was absolutely-- I, I was quite elated because I thought, "This is the first thing that really explains my symptoms, where they're coming from, and what might help me to recover."

The, the dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system was the only thing that I'd ever heard that made absolute sense in terms of my, the history of my illness over so many years and my current symptoms. And so then I did Dan's ANS REWIRE program. I actually did it twice to, to make-- because after the first time that I did it, I had some improvement, but I felt that I could do more if I understood even more thoroughly and, and did the exercises more, more thoroughly.

Daily strategies and rebuilding activity

So I did it twice. So using Dan's program and the tips that I got from other places as well, I attribute my recovery, the mind-body aspect, the brain training, and the, the meditation, which I do for 40 minutes every day. I-- and for a while I did for 40 minutes twice a day because I just felt that I needed that because I found I was still bracing, which is one of the things Dan taught me about.

I was-- I started walking, and I could do 10 minutes, then I got up to 20 minutes. Now I get up early, and I walk before breakfast without hypoglycemia for about half an hour. As well, I do exercises. I work out with weights and resistance. I have a class once a week 'cause I have osteopenia a little bit, and I want to fix that without drugs.

But also I want to get, get really strong. And I work out at home before breakfast. So to me, there's no way that I could ever dream, have dreamed when I was very ill or even when I was just moderately ill, that I could have done anything like that, so that's quite significant. I no longer worry about going out or doing things.

What recovery means to Catherine

I finally got my book published when I was 73, and that was a big highlight of my life after so many years of illness. And I was really pleased for my family also that they could see that, that I could get there. I have a chronic lung infection as a, as a complication, I was told, of CFS, and I don't count those as something in terms of my recovery because I count it in terms of I can do everything now that I want to do and, and in, in my book that means that, that I've recovered.

I can't think of percentages because I'm no good at maths for a start but also I was only 31 the last time I was fully well, and then 34 when I went into remission. And so I'm now 75 and And I'm trying to work out, okay, what, what, what, what does a n- what does a 75-year-old do? And I think I do pretty much everything a 75-year-old can do.

Why the program resonated

And then the beginning of the program totally confirmed the fact that here was something that was absolutely addressing the cause of the illness, not just the symptoms, which is all I'd been able to do before, to my knowledge. I had been addressing the cause in, in bits and pieces i- myself, but without any understanding of what I was doing.

So the, the main thing that I started immediately were the brain retraining exercises, and for anyone who's familiar with the program, you know that that's REWIRE. Now, I did that over and over and over and over again with my symptoms, and I also want to say in its presentation and the content was the absolutely the most detailed, clear, concise, and comprehensive program that I have Ever heard of and that I, that I could possibly imagine because it g- it, it covers every aspect of what the autonomic nervous system does, so that you can rewire your brain to, to overcome the dysfunction.

And it, it-- the steps that you take along the way are, are, are very-- are graded so that you're not overwhelmed with anything at any point. But it's important to... And you can do it at your own pace. You can watch a half a video or even listen if that's all you can do. I would recommend the program to anyone, including people who are extremely una-unable to look at the computer to even watch the videos.

But the program also gives you that confidence because it s- explains so well what the cause is and, and how to, how to overcome it. And as for movement, Dan, Dan explains how you can start really small, how you can pace yourself, how you can gradually build up, and I found that extremely useful as well and, and again, giving me confidence all along the way.

One thing Dan does in all of his, his interviews is he, he gives you this, this very strong sense of trusting yourself, trusting in the healing powers of your mind and body, and that's absolutely essential, I think, for, for recovery. The, the cognitive, the psychological aspects also Dan covers extremely well.

Life and outlook now

So I think my life now is much more balanced, and I keep checking in with that. I'm researching another book, and I'm balancing the, the work more with social activities than I once would have. So I think I've learnt so much in the program, not just for recovery, but for my life. At 75, I can, I can say that these are things that if I had learnt them many years ago, my life would have been much better, much different.

Apart from my health, my entire life, my relationships, my work, everything would've, would've actually benefited from what Dan teaches in the program. It's really, it's a program for recovery, but it's also a program for life. What I've learnt in the program I'll practice for the rest of my life and, and I'm practicing them now, and I hope that will be a long life.

I'm 75 years young, I feel. As my daughters say, "Old age will be nothing to you, Mum, because, you know, you had CFS," and you'll be saying, "What was all the fuss about?" And I think I feel that now, actually. I would say do not hesitate for one moment to start.

If, if you, if you just want to get better, even if it's hard to believe that you can get better, even if you've been hopeless in the past, I think that y- you will absolutely believe in your ability to recover very soon after you start, if you don't already. Just do it. That's all I can say.

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