Jan developed fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue after grief, tried antidepressants and physiotherapy without lasting relief, then attended Ashok Gupta's amygdala retraining session in London. After practicing the techniques, her pain and fatigue dropped significantly and she regained the ability to socialize, care for grandchildren, and volunteer.
Questions this video answers
59 years old.
Four years.
Her father, mother, and husband all died within ten months.
At the clinic in London.
About an hour and a half.
Chapters
My name is Jan. I'm 59 years old. I've had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome for four years. I'm not sure how or when it started as 5 years ago I suffered a bereavement. My father, my mother and my husband all died within 10 months. And after that I went into a depression and was given tablets for that, antidepressants. And sometime during that time the fibromyalgia and the chronic fatigue started. But I can't pinpoint an actual time. It started off just with various aches and pains and a general tiredness, but it got worse and at some times I couldn't get out of my chair. I was sat there all day, just falling asleep, getting up and then falling asleep again. I was working at that time, but after a few months I had to take sick leave. And then again after about 10 months, I had to actually tender my resignation and I was given ill health retirement. And I've been on retirement benefit ever since. The pains did vary. Occasionally they were really severe. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat. And on other occasions they were, I wouldn't say minor, but they were varied. I'd start maybe with pains in my arms and then within it could be an hour they would have gone and I'd have pains in my back or my legs. The general tiredness was all pervading. I didn't feel like going anywhere. I didn't feel like doing anything. And you know, it really did take over my life to where I was just thinking about it all the time as to how I would feel the next day or the next hour. And that was depressing in itself. Well, I started to compensate by actually by overeating, which is not a good idea. I can tell anybody that. It was the only thing to eat and drink, just sit and eat and drink all day. I didn't want to read or watch television, certainly didn't want to go out, any activities. It really was, you know, tied me to the home and totally different to how I was before the treatments. I tried. My doctor recommended acupuncture to start with, which was okay, but didn't have any long term effects. No benefit long term. We tried manipulation that was extremely painful and I didn't continue with that. They had aqua aerobics. They seemed to think it was muscle wastage that was my problem. And so they, you know, gave me all these things to try and build up my strength, but actually they just made me feel worse. Antidepressants, of course, and very strong Painkillers. I used to have to attend a counselling service in Leeds, which was an hour and a half bus journey because I do not drive. And I'd have a half an hour session there and then there was an hour and a half back and they wondered why I wasn't getting any benefit from it. And of course, with chronic fatigue, you know, it just wore me out. And it was after one of these visits that I was very, very ill. And in fact I got into my head I was going to have a stroke or something, you know, very, very ill. And I made a promise to myself then that I would stop all these tablets, all these visits, and I would cope with it on my own, how I felt I could cope with it. And that's what I decided. But it was okay doing it on my own, but I still needed help to make a breakthrough. And it was while I was just searching the Internet and I came across one article that mentioned the amygdala, which I'd never heard of before and no doctor had ever mentioned that before. And I thought, oh, what is the amygdala? So I looked again and found out what exactly the amygdala was. And linked to that was the site for ashok. So I thought, well, okay, I'll have a look. And I clicked on it and read through and I thought, well, this is me. This is exactly how I'm feeling. This is exactly what's been happening. So I came down to London to meet with Ashok at the clinic and it was a terrible day, pouring with rain, and I remember standing in line for a taxi and having to wait a long time. But I met Ashok, we went into the clinic and we went through the amygdala training which took about an hour and a half. And we went through all the techniques to help with, you know, to retrain the amygdala. And I felt really good about myself afterwards. I didn't honestly think it may work. I was a little bit skeptic, but, you know, I was wanting it to work, but with that little bit of skepticism about would it but. But I came out of there and I really felt good, really positive about the future, felt really good in myself. It was still a terrible day, but I didn't care as much. So I went back to Yorkshire and Ashok had given me a relaxation tape as well, which I listened to. And I went through the processes every day for about a week, the techniques in involved and found it very helpful. If I did tend to sort of slip back into my negative way of thinking, then I just went through the program one more time and put myself back on the right track. I still use it occasionally today. I don't use it all the time because I don't need to use it all the time. It has really helped me so much. Just keep those papers handy in case I need to go through it again and just keep on track with the good work. So far, there have been small setbacks and I do state they are small. I've had days where I perhaps didn't feel quite as well, quite as positive, maybe a little pain. I go through the treatment, through the amygdala training again and that does help me and I now can do more things. I'm more active. I have a new grandson, which is marvellous because I can actually play with. I'm afraid I'd stop playing with my grandchildren, which is a terrible sin. My granddaughter now says, grandma's back again because I take them out and we go on holiday and we do things together, which is nice. I'm not going back to work because I retire in September anyway, so I'm afraid that's it for me. But I do spend my time more profitably now. I work for charity. I go out a lot with my friends. We go walking, we go visiting sites, you know, and. And having a good time and a good laugh. And that's a big thing, is to be able to laugh again. I found. I don't think I laughed for about two years. And now we are. We're happy and we're laughing again and it's a lovely feeling. Yeah. There probably will always be little setbacks, but they are small setbacks and with continuing, the training wheels are coming. I feel so much better now, so much better in myself. There's very little pain, occasional pain, but not a lot. I feel now that my life is back on track to what I would have thought I would be at this. At my age, I feel that, you know, I've got another 20 years, perhaps, if I'm lucky, and I'm going to make the most of them. It's going to be good. When I came down, as I said, I was a little bit skeptical about the treatment. It's not something that I'd heard had been proven, but at that stage, you know, you get desperate, you try anything. It has worked for me and I think it can work for a lot of people. They will have to commit themselves to it. I mean, it's not all invasive. It's not going to take you all your time to do it. To start with maybe you'll need to do it two or three times a day just to keep going. And then as it gets better, you use it less and less. But it's always there if you need it. I think it could. It could help a great deal of people that, like myself, didn't want to be dependent on drugs. You know, it. It's not always the answer to everything. And, yeah, I'm going to enjoy my life, what's left of it.
