A first-person YouTube testimonial by Bonnie describing her multi-year decline into severe fatigue, food and chemical sensitivities, oral/membrane pain, blurred vision, digestive problems, and suspected early-stage autoimmune dysfunction (markers suggesting immune hyperactivity and possible lupus). After ~2.5 years of specialist visits with no clear disease, an integrative GP recommended the Gupta Program. Bonnie practiced the program daily for four months, reporting ~80% improvement within that period and approximately 90% recovery overall with occasional, shorter flares triggered by stress. She attributes benefit to emotional-release/forgiveness steps and increased self-management skills.
Questions this video answers
May 13, 2024
About two and a half years
She did the steps every day for four months; it took about a month to begin kicking in and reached ~80% better within that four months.
Approximately 90% better overall, with occasional, shorter flares during high stress.
About 20-minute walks
Chapters
So my name's Bonnie. Before I became unwell, I was very, very active is probably the best way to describe me. So I do a lot of sports and I guess outdoor, more extreme sports, so lots of mountain biking, lots of climbing, lots of diving and surfing. I was also working a lot, so I had a pretty stressful and high up job. So I think I was getting gradually sick and just ignoring it. I was getting really run down and fatigued and having symptoms like my hair started to kind of fall out for a while and I would just have to keep sleeping. I then got a series of viruses where I got sick and it was kind of that last virus that I think broke me. I. I think the first signs that something had really shifted beyond being incredibly runs down was that I'd get blisters all through my mouth and I became really sensitive to most foods, to smells, to any deodorants and soaps and washing powders. I just have really severe allergic reactions to them. I'd be in quite a lot of pain. All of my membranes were quite painful and I couldn't see properly. I'd have blurred vision and have a lot of burning, I guess, sensations right down into my throat and my stomach and I couldn't digest food very well and I had incredible fatigue. I could manage 20 minute walks here and there, but that was about it. I also had to cut back on socialising. I'd have about one social event week, but that got pretty hard and miserable because I couldn't eat anything. So, you know, a lot of our social gatherings, eating, but I couldn't even drink like flavored tea at the time. Anything would irritate my stomach and irritate my mouth. I got all sorts of diagnoses at the time, like heaps. But in the end, what they. What. The conclusion that we came to after about two and a half years of seeing different specialists was that I had the start of an autoimmune condition. So they found markers that my immune system was malfunctioning and hyperactive, but I had no clear disease yet. They suspected I was getting lupus and I had kind of mild arthritis. I ended up getting to the point where I was seeing integrative gps. So this lady who specialises in gut health recommended I start the Gupta program. When I started to go through the steps, what was really interesting was it was a bit of a process of emotional release and forgiveness. I guess I blamed myself for getting so sick because of the job I was in and because, you know, I was, in hindsight, really pushing my body and ignoring it too much. And so stepping through that process day after day after day, I kind of could work through forgiving myself for what happened and letting go of it. Because I think a lot of what I was stressed about and keeping me sick in this stress pattern was regret and how I could have done things differently. I think it also, as I referenced before, gave me a feeling of empowerment, of I can control this and manage this. After about three years of doctors telling me that they didn't know what was happening, and one doctor had said, we just need to wait until you develop a disease and then we'll manage your symptoms. And for me, that was horrifying. The thought of having to wait to get sicker, to then just live on my symptoms. I did the steps every day for four months and that was huge. And that got me probably 80% better within that four months. And since then I haven't been doing it every day, but I'm probably have grown to 90% better. So occasionally my symptoms will flare up, but that's when I'm really stressed or have a lot on and now I know how to calm it down. So the flare ups are much shorter and less severe than they were. But that first four months was huge and it probably took a month for it to really kick in, but after that, that progressed really, really quickly.
