Self study for chronic fatigue syndrome
Books, documentation and studies to understand ME/CFS
If you are suffering from ME/CFS it is my advice to read up about related topics. Your general practitioner usually won’t be able to provide you with knowledge about this condition. Instead they would like to refer you to specialists that do not treat the body as whole. Eventually somewhere on the road you will receive the label ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ or ‘chronic lyme disease’ or ‘fibromyalgia’. These labels mean that they don’t have a clue what it is. If they tell you that you cannot heal from this, you will feel defeated and you won’t actively search for what it is for a while. Until the day comes that you figure out what it is on the good days that made you feel a little bit better. All the books I recommend are holistic approaches, after a few bodymind books the road ahead of you will become much clearer.
With these kinds of subjects we only get a full understanding after reading a lot of information from different perspectives. My recommendation is to read only a few pages a day as you also need time to process the information. After many months you will have absorbed a lot of knowledge. Some authors claim to have discovered the full truth in their book. I believe that many have only discovered a partial truth and that healing from this chronic disease should always involve the four components that I talk about on this website.
If reading so many books is overwhelming, then concider starting the Alignment Program. All you have to do then is to enjoy the very practical ride.
The intelligent body
Mindbody introduction
Introduction to the mindbody connection. This book helps you to understand your symptoms and has a self-help way to calm your nervous system down. This is a must-read for anyone with fatigue issues. Online coaching is also an option.
Reinventing your life
Change your stressful personality
Learn how to end the self-destructive behaviors that stop you from living your best life with this breakthrough program. If you have ME/CFS, you are forced to change your personality. People are often not aware of their stressful egoic coping mechanisms. This book is a must-read for anyone who stumbles repeatedly on any problem in life. This method is based on ‘schema therapy’. Allow yourself this book. By recognising and changing stressful egoic programs, you will calm down your nervous system. Your symptoms all start with a stressful nervous system.
The anatomy of loneliness
How to find your way back to connection
Teal Swan always has surprising ways to talk about psychological subjects. This book doesn’t seem related to ME/CFS at first. The more you read however, you will see that it can be the foundation of fatigue. This book explains the way you have shaped your character and why.
You can heal your life
Are you willing to do the mental work?
This book is based on Louise’s way to reprogram the subconscious mind with affirmations. Not only do you change your (negative) beliefs, you will also attract different circumstances in your life via her method. Many people have been helped with this book since she originally wrote it. I still like to listen to her voice on YouTube as it is powerful and loving at the same time. She helped me a lot with her way of seeing things. Thank you Louise.
Reverse therapy
Mindbody introduction
Introduction to the mindbody connection. This book helps you to understand your stress and symptoms from an emotional viewpoint. It has a self-help way to reverse your symptoms, by investigating the stressful periods prior to ME/CFS. You can also find a practitioner.
The great pain deception
Great book about the relation of the psyche with symptoms
A must-read book that explains chronic pain and fatigue and other psychosomatic illnesses and how to deal with the symptoms while you are healing. This is the most complete book about TMS and psychosomatic or mind-body symptoms. Keep in mind that this book deals mainly with the trigger of fatigue, not with the negative spiral and nervous system.
The mindbody prescription
Dr Sarno’s most complete work
Mindbody symptoms are rooted in repressed emotions. The book shows how they can be successfully treated without drugs, physical measures, or surgery. His innovative program has already produced gratifying results for thousands of patients. The Mindbody Prescription is your invaluable key to a healthy and pain-free life.
The completion process
Healing unknown trauma
This book explains a self-help strategy for dealing with unresolved emotions. A big and ongoing technique for the rest of your life. After emotional healing however, you will also need to take action physically. There are other emotional methods, this is the one I prefer.
When the body says no
The psychology of disease
A must-read book from Gabor Mate. He has observed many people with several chronic illnesses in his role as a psychologist and has studied many studies through the years. He has discovered several conclusions like the inability to feel your boundaries and emotions and writes about it in this book. Based on psychological profiles, doctors were able to predict future diagnoses. This book holds the proof that psychology and disease are connected.
Germanic new medicine
The positive purpose of disease
For anyone who would like to dive deeper into specific ailments and the underlying root cause, I recommend studying Germanic New Medicine. As I am Dutch, I didn’t read this book, but it seems to have it all summed up. There is also a website with free resources and explanations. Note: All the work from Dr Hamer is based on scientific evidence. Unfortunately it is also unwanted by the majority of "commercial" medical science.
Silence
The power of quiet in a world full of noise
Thich Nhat Hanh writes about meditation and mindfulness in a beautiful and poetic way. To calm down the nervous system you will need to calm down your mind.
Get the life you love now
How neuroplasticity works
Phil Parker, who invented the Lightning process, wrote a book to explain how neuroplasticity works. Check it out! I don’t really support his commercial methods, yet his method is a powerful tool that can help you rewire the nervous system into calmness.
You can heal chronic illness
A story from someone who has healed herself
Frances Goodal has had ME/CFS herself and writes about neuroplasticity & calming down the nervous system in a very pragmatic way for someone who is fatigued.
The wisdom of trauma
Documentary about the consequences of trauma
Gabor Maté worked as a psychologist on changing trauma personalities back to human beings. The role of trauma in the stress addiction that dysregulates the ANS is shown pretty well in this documenary
Getting past your past
EMDR self help
A trauma is an emotion that couldn’t be experienced due to the freeze mode of the nervous system. Francine Shapiro developed EMDR and created a way to access and process buried memories and emotions that unconsciously destroy our lives.
Inside out revolution
What is happiness and how this knowledge transforms your life
Both the approaches of the inner-child (ID) or inner-parent (superego) are based on craving happiness and well-being. One approach leads to mindbody diseases and the other to addictions. Both strategies are however based on lack, in the belief that happiness is to be attained somehow. Watch the video summary on YouTube and read the book to find out more
Attached
How and why relationships can be stressful
Relations can be stressful. Sometimes people are even addicted to roller coaster relationships. Some always try to avoid intimacy and others desperately need it. Instead of changing ourselves into something more desired, it is better to understand the attachment style you are in. Understanding this can give you great peace over yourself and in your relationship. As stress plays a major role in ME/CFS I recommend this book, as it really opened my eyes.
The power of now
Silence your mind!
When I read this book over 10 years ago, I knew I read something powerful, but the now still seemed like a concept for me. It wasn‘t until I couldn’t move, talk or think clearly that I gave up my thoughts and ideas. At that moment I remembered this book and how just like with Eckhart, something clicked and switched inside me.
Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome
YouTube movie from Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD
This post draws from UC San Diego’s Dr. Robert Naviaux’s cell danger response (2014, 2018) and his 2016 study documenting statistically significant, objective, hypometabolic changes in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS for myalgic encephalitis). These findings clarify how very real this physical disease is. I do not agree with his statement that no psychological explanation is needed. Psychosomatic symptoms were never imagined!