Burn Out to Brilliance. Recovery from Chronic Fatigue | Linda Jones | TEDxBirminghamCityUniversity

In 2001 Linda Jones’s world changed. As a young and successful business woman she was living a happy and fulfilled life; working long hours travelling the country, a fitness fanatic who enjoyed a full social life. Looking back there was recognition that this was unsustainable. Early recognition signs and symptoms were ignored, and led to complete burn out. Linda’s journey to full recovery sparked a passion to help others as she set up Salus Fatigue Foundation In 2001, after illness, Linda Jones, CEO Salus Fatigue Foundation & Life4Changing was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She lost everything. Her relentless attitude, which caused her burnout in the first place, meant she wasn’t going to just accept that diagnosis and become a statistic. Determined to recover and get her life back she took a holistic approach and coached herself back to health.

[ArielleCeleste]

I completely burnt out for the 2nd time in mid-2019. I am still struggling to recover 4.5 years later. I have daily chronic exhaustion & quite bad cognition issues with basic functions like concentration & memory. If I don't pace myself by only taking on one very low-stress thing at a time I crash into hypersomnia & can sleep for 16-18 hours a day for up to 3 weeks when my exhaustion is really bad. I'm 38 & have only recently been able to manage daily domestic duties & leaving the house once a fortnight to do errands.

If you feel yourself starting to burnout (exhaustion, issues with cognition, cranky/snappy, poor sleep, poor diet, not giving an eff about anything/anyone) do an audit of your life asap & try to cut out, delegate, or share any work or personal tasks/duties you can. If that means you have to go on stress leave from your job or uni &/or look for another job or change degrees, then do it before you get to the point of not being able to get out of bed because your system has shut down.

[MustafaKulle]

"At the time I was in my early 30s but I actually felt more like I was 130." I am so feeling that right now.

[kayligo]

I was hoping to hear more than “I drank smoothies and went on walks”

[andmk]

You can't take away the experience of one person. She recovered and well done!! She also got to tell her story through TEDx a respected medium. But that's not the whole picture. There are many of us who are doing the recovery work, and more, to recover but we are not making the breakthroughs we desire. In storytelling terms, we're not ready to get up on the TED stage and proclaim our story complete with a happy ending.

[Kentucky-bzpg]

I'm a 40 year old male I experienced moderate to severe chronic fatigue syndrome from the time I was 25 to the time I was 35, it's a horrible frustrating disease. Extremely tired, couldn't exercise without feeling worse, vertigo, poor memory, trouble formulating sentences and speaking.
I currently take about 15 supplements every day that help me lead a fairly normal life, mostly natural anti-inflammatories, antioxidants, antiviral, and mitochondrial supporting supplements. I'm gluten free, cannot drink anything carbonated, coffee and this includes decaffeinated coffee, pretty sports drinks, and most beers. I'm completely caffeine and nicotine free in fact if I touch caffeine even 10-15 mg it gives me anxiety now makes me feel like I'm going to jump through the roof. And around 30 years old I was taking two 200 mg pills of caffeine everyday to stay awake, that's probably the equivalent of a few large coffees from your favorite gas station. I think the anxiety from caffeine that I currently get is a sign that my body is healthy and now responds to caffeine whereas 10 years ago I could drink a pot of coffee and not feel anything. Don't give up. What I once considered my one good day per month is now what I consider my one bad day a month, most days I feel like I'm 18 again and I never thought that would happen.

[therealmyyt]

My Aunt has CFS and she's gone to every holistic practitioner, she's done all the diets, all the meditation but it gets worse the more she tries. Rest is the best thing for her, when she has rest she's able to do things like go to the shops once a week, a walk around the block, do light gardening - whenever she's been told to push herself more is when she has a flair up.

[Neoyorchese]

Trembling, lightheaded, deep fatigue down to tbe bone, vertigo, eye problems, body pain and weakness etc. It is like someone grabbed all the diseases into one and gave it to us. I do feel like i relate to the poison mentioned here...

[gabriellehalette]

Life has a way of pacing you without your consent. There's a whole difference between doing and being and if you're doing too much your body will force you into being restful.

[pilotscott]

I'm right with this lady. I was a career military officer, pilot, and a very busy go-getter type of person. I was in an exercise in 2019, and got pretty sick during this extremely stressful time. I pushed through for the remaining 3 weeks of the exercise, and just hoped to go home and start to feel better. I got over the virus - whatever it was. But I have never felt the same since. It's an effort to get out of bed everyday. I have a very "fuzzy" head. I get disoriented. I can physically feel my weight, and it just becomes hard to get through the day. Some days, it physically hurts just to move around. But now it's gotten to where I feel like everyday is an absolute struggle to just get through. The worst part of it is that no one seems to believe me. My wife thinks it's all in my head, and thinks we'll go back to being world travelers any day. I cannot even survive the work day. The military diagnosed me with, basically, hypochondria upon retirement, but never looked for a real reason. I KNOW it's not in my head. I have data now too, with my Garmin telling me I have the HRV of an 80 year old. I went from being a high-level officer and flying dignitaries on a weekly basis, to barely able to do school work online at my home. That transition happened in only 4 years.

[RebeccaEWebber]

These comments are really fueling my motivation to do this work. I am doing better now after 7 years and now I want to help others recover too.

[Bjh-otxz]

Beautiful message. I’m suffering from CFS, anxiety, PTSD, & bulging discs from a car accident. I feel burnt out most of the time because of muscle pain & weakness. My quality of life has suffered and I frequently push myself to complete daily tasks. I hope to recover like this woman so I can accomplish my life goals

[tinatuvalle]

The flu that last forever and one good day is like a blessing. Welcome to my world.

[JulietTheGirl]

When you turn the volume to the max and still can't quite hear ... Am I the only one? :D

[douglasvancier]

I had it bad for about 2 years straight. Slowly I got better, but would have recurring relapses every couple of years at first that lasted about 3 months each. Then the relapses came with less frequency and less severe. Now I'm currently going through a relapse (hince searching things on CFS on YouTube) and it has been about 8 years since my last relapse. You think you are completely over it then it creeps up on you unexpectedly, reminding you it is still in your system. From experience I know I will pull through this relapse too. I guess I am fortunate to only have mild relapses between years of feeling great because I know so many people never fully recover and feel bad all the time. All I can say is I take care of myself and I tell myself if other people can "recover" from CFS I can too. I try to keep a positive attitude. I hope this helps and pray you long time sufferers will find some relief as well.

[thipparatchuri-nagrusk]

All we do is work. Non stop. We have been conditioned to believe wealth comes from material things and in order to do that majority of people just work and party in hopes that one day they will feel fulfilled... Most of the working and middle class drop like flies these days, whether it's some sort of diseases, break down or just simply throwing it all away to go on a different path. We need balance so much. We need to look after our planet and each other.

[gumogumonopistol]

Same here. I lost 3 years of my youth to CFS. My vision sucked. Everything looked foggy. I couldn't even walk for a block. Ringing in my ears. But we don't give up! Help those who are in need. Bounce back friends!

[ujsclsy]

*Was she misdiagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?* She specifically says she was able to increase her exercise which is the opposite to the post-exertional malaise that is part of true Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. CFS/ME doesn't manifest in the same ways in everyone who has it, but it does have some consistent criteria and Post-exertional malaise is one of them.
I've had this disease since 1976 and with each subsequent illness, car accident, trauma, mold or pesticide exposure, it's gotten worse. I've done all she did because I too am a driven ambitious person like she is, like _most_ people who get CFS/ME are. None of it has helped me; in fact the things that worked for her don't work for most people with CFS/ME. Certainly not graded exercise. For most people, exercise makes it _worse._
So, was she misdiagnosed?

[mindfuljoys]

It's amazing to hear about your recovery from where you were. Amazing. Mindfulness and meditation really helped me out. Recognizing negative thought patterns and changing them over to a positive affirmation has been doing wonders for me.

[lilwaffleiron]

I'm a senior in highschool and for the longest time I've just lived my life feeling incredibly pathetic and empty, and I had a really hard time understanding where this even came from because it felt so sudden. Hearing you talk about the onset made things so much more clear to me. I went through a period of extreme fatigue that got better but never completely left, I lost the energy to keep up with most of my social life, then I started getting sick, one awful cold every single season for the past year and a half, extreme executive dysfunction and constant need for immediate dopamine. I have such a bright future, I have to take the steps to fix this before it's too late

[adinashenry]

Thanks for the great talk Linda. Unfortunately there are those of us who are in the 25 percent severe range and any form of exercise is out of the question. If I try to push myself one minute, say walking up and down the driveway for two minutes on a good day, then I will not be able to get out of bed for months on end and be very severely ill. I tried yoga when i was in a very bad flare up, I mean yoga gentle stretches and it nearly killed me. I think we all have different levels of this illness so one's road to recovery does not apply to all. Having said that, I am very happy for you :) Thanks for describing how bad it can get. Oh it can get worse than the flu as I have often been paralyzed on and off etc