CFS Recovery Brain Retraining - with Dan Neuffer

In this interview, Dan Neuffer, author of CFS Unravelled and founder of ANS Rewire, shares his experience and insights into brain training and its potential to help with recovery from health conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and other similar conditions.

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LET’S BE FRIENDS:

TIMESTAMPS:
01:05 - What is brain retraining?
06:44 - Is brain retraining the answer?
08:44 - Looking at the trigger of ME/CFS
10:24 - Our role in recovery
12:27 - Are there things to fear with brain retraining?
16:37 - Finding what works for you
21:23 - Why some people aren’t ready yet for brain retraining
24:55 - Which brain retraining program is best?
28:35 - How to learn more about ANS Rewire

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REMINDER: This is for information purposes only and nothing I share should be considered medical advice. Please make your own assessment, do your own further research, and consult your trusted healthcare professionals before deciding if anything I talk about here might be right for you.

#chronicfatiguesyndrome #cfs #chronicfatigue

[RaelanAgle]

TIMESTAMPS:

01:05 - What is brain retraining?
06:44 - Is brain retraining the answer?
08:44 - Looking at the trigger of ME/CFS
10:24 - Our role in recovery
12:27 - Are there things to fear with brain retraining?
16:37 - Finding what works for you
21:23 - Why some people aren’t ready yet for brain retraining
24:55 - Which brain retraining program is best?
28:35 - How to learn more about ANS Rewire

[susanshaw]

I did Dan's program. I was on the couch all day and could barely walk down the driveway to get the mail. For me, it was a revelation to realize that I could apply basic CBT type principals to symptoms and just stop making a big deal out of them!!! I am back to working full-time and doing gentle gym workouts. :)

[wyrdwitch]

Great conversation, super helpful! I started the ANS Rewire program about a month ago & already seeing large benefits (recovering from crashes much faster & waking feeling refreshed for the first time in years). Highly recommend!

[evelinel.]

One thing that has been key for me and only spoke about it certain recovery modalities (TMS/Dr. Sarno and Dr. Cathleen King's Primal Trust program, Dr. Kim D'eramo and a few others) is learning to feel emotions. Some of us from a young age (due to emotional neglect, (which can happen even in loving families when the parents themselves are not emotionally connected with themselves) abuse or trauma) became very cut off from our emotions and feelings (and our bodies) and getting reconnected to our feelings (and in our body ) is a key part of regulating the nervous system. Recovery is all about nervous system regulation so of course emotional regulation is part of that. Just distracting and brain training when emotions come up can make people worse as. the only thing emotions want is to be felt in the body. We need to name our emotions if they have come up, feel our emotions, and THEN brain train.

[scarletfalanges]

Spot on - taking self responsibility but without judgement and shame around it.

People find it hard to the first without the other parts. And even when we do mess up, not put the effort in or whatever - we need to remember that at that time, we were doing the best we could for whatever reason.

[kimwarburton]

i can vouch for Dan's programme too! i like to think of it as a blueprint i can tailor to myself.
i was once bedridden n paleo-keto got me off of that, but then i plateaued.
With Dan's programme i got to cantering in horse riding lessons weekly and volunteering at a charity shop 6-10hrs a week before the covid pandemic. this made me feel the world was unsafe, i went into isolation, got hooked on weed the first year.
This time last year, i started psychotherapy, went clean and im recently back into ketosis. My meditation has been consistent and my selfcare has improved. I NEEDED covid to rein me in n re-teach me Dan's lessons that wouldve otherwise led to a significant relapse had i continued rushing out into the world pre pandemic. Dan got me back on track n laid a solid foundation.
My mental health/CPTSD and inconsistency (self neglect) have been whats not yet led to a full recovery and im getting better with those bit by bit
EDIT; Ive watched the whole programme 5 times now n gain new deeper understanding each time <3

[lukeluke]

This is a really important message. A few months ago, I did a brain training program and felt completely gas-lighted by the experience. There was so much in-built pressure in the program to do well and recover, that I felt as though I couldn't match-up from the word go (and surprise surprise I crashed and burned!) I think it's important to see brain training as a valuable part of the recovery toolbox, but like this interview suggests, lead with self-compassion and not with a single-minded expectation that you'll be cured immediately. Thanks Raelan for everything that you do, love your work :)

[deion]

I would love to see all the CFS/ME 'experts' come together on your channel... Dan neuffer, alex howard, and toby morrison!

[TheLuminousOne]

I bought Dan's book CFS Unravelled. What a gem. I can highly recommend it.

[ravenslair]

Gosh so fantastic!!! I just love you guys!!! I’ve listened to everything Dan has done since he began (Dan and Toby have been HUGE in my recovery!) I’m so grateful for you guys and Raelan, THANK YOU for bringing so many amazing speakers to us... our stories are SO similar. I feel like you are my spirit sister!!🌹😘✨

[nolamayer]

So good to hear Dan refer to people who have tried brain training and weren’t successful in the long term, not to feel a failure. It’s so important to realise we are all different and if something doesn’t work that’s ok, just keep looking and trying.

[unknown-rytf]

Thank you Raelan this came just at the right time for me ❤ honestly if I ever recover I owe you a big hug because your videos have been there for me when no one else was.

[kathystoner]

Terrific interview! I did the ANS Rewire 3 yrs ago and saw improvements and got out of being bedbound, but for some reason I stopped and started trying other things. Among those things I tried a different brain retraining program and did it for a few months and just couldn't connect with it. I did feel like it was my fault that I it worked for other people and not for me. I just started back up with the ANS Rewire again and also realized that therapy was something I needed as well. Thanks Dan! And thanks Raelan for interviewing him!,

[sushilaananda]

Thanks Dan for this video. I am doing ANS Rewire now and this interview has been very helpful in presenting nuances that I have missed in the program.

[Tam]

I so appreciate Dan's honest and nuanced approach, and his genuine compassion

[estherringthegack]

I did his program about a year ago and got a lot better- I did not follow it perfectly but I am 50 percent better- such a comprehensive program-so much good stuff in there - I gained a lot of personal insights - he is a lovely teacher and I think given the amount of content it’s an absolute bargain- I still go back to it from time to time- if you are thinking about it I would say this - I’d be very surprised if you didn’t get a few precious nuggets of wisdom from it ❤️X

[KWilliams]

Fantastic interview. I agree 100% with everything you both said!! Thank you thank you ❤

[Aunt.E]

What a sweetie, he’s just a thoroughly nice person.

[amym]

I hope your channel explodes Raelan, it is so helpful.

[NejatBJK]

Hello Raelan and Dan. I like you guys both.

A short summary on my side: I was born in 1979 and I have been sick since 2008. It just started while I was doing my PhD studies abroad and since then I have never fully recovered. I am much better than the earlier days of the onset of the CFS
I have tried various programs from Alex Howard, Gupta's Amygdala training and also Dan's ANS Rewiring program. During all these years, I have worked as a fulltime research and development engineer (felt like hell sometimes) in a software company and spent most of my income on products that may help CFS conditions disappear. But they never did, eventually.

In my experience the first and foremost thing is to understand that CFS patients that are experiencing it on the same lines as I do, have continuous stress in our systems. Even very basic stuff can increase our stress levels very high and somehow it remains as high unless we do deliberate action on it, like meditation.
Coming to meditation and brain training, I have worked on Dan's techniques which are also included in Alex's and Gupta's programs in some different shape and form.
Dan's program structure is great, Alex's Reset program is also one of the best I can. Gupta's is a bit outdated now and requires some different kind of work that not everybody may like or use effectively.
Dan basically focuses on stress reduction and teaching the brain to stay in a calm and relaxed state through meditation continuously 45 minutes. It starts with 20 mins but the target duration is continuous 45 mins meditation. Now, I must admit that I am not the person that does everything perfectly but to be true to myself I did pretty much as correctly as I can what Dan's or Alex's programs instructed to me.

It has been around 6 years now that I have worked through Dan's program but I had very little success on that. What bothered me on the program was even after 4 months of hard meditation for 45 minutes, eating habit changes and other brain training methods I just did not see a significant change overall. Not to discourage people on that but It simply did not work for me as is. After a year or so. I've retried the program with a lesser motivation and I of course failed again. But meanwhile I should admit that I had some gains as well. Earlier I did not have the awareness of the pain I had on my neck and back area and continuous low level ongoing stress. This program taught me how to deal with them.

On Alex's program however, the mediation practice is also there but in shorter chunks. And this I could tell suited me much better since there are different times during the day that I started to have increased stress and the lack of intervention on it just lets it keep going during whole day. So Shorter amount of meditation everyday at different times helped me more I would say.

My eating habits are already good since many years. The only point that I fail is sleeping. I simply cannot go to bed before 12pm and I usually sleep 7-8 hours. The amount is not too few but the time when you go to sleep makes a difference that I don't have data to prove. But anyway, I cannot usually go to be too early as it is recommended most of the programs.

Anyway just wanted to make a contribution as an experienced CFS patient. Thanks for you on your work and all the other researchers, ex-patients new coaches and all the community on their contribution.