Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM)

Post-Exertional Malaise (PEM)
--------------------
Valuable Resources:

Want to join my private Facebook Group? Come join us here:

[richardcerniglia]

Been dealing with PEM for 5 years now. After all the blood tests and supplements, I kinda gave up. A few months back discovered brain training which educated me and helped some. Discovered Dan here recently, with his messages of safety, I've noticed more improvement right away. Thank You Dan!

[kaylaberry]

I deal with this as well, but when I’m doing an activity I feel my body so tense so I stand and tell myself I’m safe and healthy and make myself relax and keep going on and continue to make myself relax. I know this will pass eventually. I keep telling myself that I am safe but sometimes my NS gives me panic when it doesn’t believe me.

[gregschmelzle]

You’re absolutely right Dan! I lived at several years like the doctor said don’t do too much that just made my world smaller! I have been taking it the other direction and when symptoms show up respond calmly know what it is and shift focus away it’s working thank you so much!

[Josh-ifto]

Had PEM probably a hundred times since getting diagnosed in CFS two and a half years ago. Discovered mind body work 7 weeks ago via the tms forum and then found your channel.
PEM for me is almost always caused by emotions related to my core fear. It has nothing to do with how much I do which is what I used to think. If I'm able to release these emotions (usually via meditation) then the severity of PEM drops massively.
I believe I was one of those that sarno explained as needing therapy, as my symptoms are reducing a lot by working through early childhood trauma (on my own right now). Just refocusing myself worked to an extent, but my body would still often go into a freeze response. Thanks for the video.

[janakedakin]

I've had a lot of experience with this for many, many years and now, with my understanding of mind body conditions and perceived danger I can say.yes, this does make sense. And, Dan, you did an excellent video a while back related to this. It was called, Seven steps to Resume Activity. That was very helpful to me and I'm sure would be for others. Thank you Dan!💜

[annemay]

I was just thinking, that I could see teaching my brain as if I am teaching my scared puppy about the world, and how most things are not scary, but it does take several steps and exposures for her to learn this.

[Laura_B__]

Thank you for this video, Dan! I do think you are on the mark. I have CFS - diagnosed in 2017 after a whole slew of tests. I've been pursuing a mind-body approach to healing for about a year and a half now and have made some progress over that time, although I have a ways to go still. PEM is my main symptom although there are many others, and I have come to understand that they are all caused by a sensitive brain perceiving danger.

Today I am experiencing significant PEM because I spent two hours outside working in the garden yesterday. Even though I had a good night's sleep, I woke up feeling like I ran a marathon yesterday. I love gardening, but my brain seems to always interpret physical activity as dangerous. It's deeply frustrating, but I try to just accept the symptoms without freaking out and give my brain messages of safety. I believe I will have a life without PEM eventually, but it's taking a long time to train my brain to understand that I am really safe, which is understandable as I was in a state of high stress and anxiety for pretty much all of my 45 years.

[nestechen]

If you believe you’re sick, you’ll always stay sick.
I learned so much from Jesus. He didn’t just heal people, he first asked them "Do you believe I can heal you?” Or "Do you want to get healed?”

It all starts with the Belief that we are actually okay. The belief doesn’t have to be big. But we mustn’t doubt. If we doubt, we sink, like Peter did when he doubted Jesus.
I think the Bible has so many valuable stories for our lives :)

[Bachconcertos]

I went to the gym came home ate lunch and i got the malaise and fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours and i had a fever when i woke up - so i took a hot Epsom salt bath and the fever went away. I was then able to go out to the grocery but i still had the fatigue when walking

[lesleymansell]

Dr Myhill explains it in her book. People with M.E/CFS and experience PEM often have a mitochondrial problem as well as other things. Also it takes much longer to make the ATP to replenish the energy used in people with CFS, that is why it takes time to recover. So it is a physical body thing but it’s still a dysfunction of the nervous system which needs to be calmed down so your rules still apply I think and calming the nervous system should allow the body to function more normally again. To me it doesn’t matter if I do something I enjoy or not, results are the same. Working on your/Dr Sarno's theory because I believe in it

[Wds__]

PEM is not like pain. There is something very real going on. Many professional and Olympic athletes got hit with PEM from covid, for years. Do you think these athletes are just scared? Perceiving danger all of sudden instead of winning gold medals? No.

[STBUCKLEY]

Post is unreal. Are you following me lol. Yesterday I actually attended my first group Writing course. My anxiety was so high. Beforehand I did a walk, nerve "pain" upped, didn't think I'd be able to go there. Anyhow I managed to stay sat for two hours despite wanting to get up and leave.
Trying to sleep and my foot went into spasm, then my calf and thigh. Woke at 2am both legs hot and inflamed and I was burning up. This morning I feel flu like and very tearful and the overthinking high. I am having to keep reminding myself it's too coincidental, it's PDP. Struggled to get in my car and go for a drive to the shop but I did it. Yes "pain" keeps spiking but I'm calling it PDP. Am sounding like a used record lol
On the other hand I thoroughly enjoyed the class.
Can't believe this video came up 🙏👏👏👏
PS. Have to remind myself I had blood tests less than two weeks ago, all good.

[alyeskak]

Love this video, Dan. Thank you from all of us who experience these symptoms. I have been expanding activity and I just developed a bout of PEM that really scared me, so this video was absolutely perfect. It's all perceived danger and I'm not sick!

[alexandrecouture]

Thank you! At first, when I got long covid, my PEM was insane! Any activity that I would do would mean being bedridden the next day, even sometimes more than one day. But, as I worked with the knowledge of John Sarno and Dan Buglio, PEM almost completely disappeared, which is amazing!

[CherryLane-siyj]

People suffering from ME/CFS symptoms are on a constant merry-go-round of blood tests and experimental IV treatments. PEM and other terms came about gradually. In the beginning, speaking historically here, it was difficult for CFS sufferers to be taken seriously. Hence, all the terminology and blood test panels and what-not. Most of the people suffering from it are women, which adds to the complexity and aggrieved feelings about taking the suffering seriously. Western medicine has a dodgy track record around conditions associated with women. I’ve known quite a few people with the condition. They struggled to get docs to believe them for years before getting a diagnosis.

But all that effort to be taken seriously by the medical community is a catch-22. Now you are in their clutches. Now you have a stack of blood tests and a word salad to describe your human experience. Trips to MDs, NDs, therapists, etc. And once you have that and pursue that path it becomes harder to retrain the brain to think psychologically about the issues at hand. It requires an ontological shift.

It’s very hard to argue with someone who is in the thick of it, especially when all this effort has been done historically to get the condition to be taken seriously. We have to be respectful of the history of this problem. It requires compassion and understanding.

[josiejo]

Initially I had this labelled response P.E.M...but thanks to all your correct information I gradually began to trust it's not real. Now I have to apply the same to emotions as sometimes I appear tired after releasing emotion & a brain that thinks it was too much...does anyone else experience this? Thank you Dan for another fantastic reminder. Nature keeping it real in the background!!❤

[penelopedickinson]

Hey Dan I couldn't believe my ears when you talk about the brain shutting us down when it perceives danger.
I've long said my body shuts me down when I do any kind of exercise.
I used to be an obsessive exerciser and I imagine when I even think about the gentlest exercise a big red light and a loud alarm go off in my brain saying "shut her down, we're not going through that again.
I'm grateful to the person who recommended your channel 🙏😺

[goddessA]

My comment a few days ago was about this type of thing. Thanks for making a longer video about it. I've been reading the comments and so many people can relate to what you're saying. It truly is about gently nudging our brains to believe we are OK, isn't it? I've been reading Neville Goddard and studying the law of assumption for a while. A lot of what you're saying makes sense from that perspective as well. In that paradigm, people even heal from verified medical issues by adopting the belief that they are awareness/consciousness, that imagination is primary reality, and that they do have the power to choose something different. It just takes a lot of bravery and persistence, but I've seen many people heal.

I've set a personal goal to do one "new" thing each day. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, just something I don't normally do or going someplace I haven't been in a long time. Yesterday, I got a manicure and pedicure for the first time in years! Today, I am going to the gym . I'm teaching my brain that we are safe and we're not waiting around ot live life anymore!

[Maria-ldkq]

I'm reading Gabor Mate's the Myth of Normal and it is so impressive that the mind and body are ONE. His theory actually verifies that TMS is very, very real.

[carolnascimento]

Hello. It makes sense.
Wishing everyone well