Verena Suess’s Story

Written By Katy McGhie

CFS - IBS

 
“I started to wonder and notice how each and every person I work with seems to have the same personality traits.... The voice in your head that tells you that you are not good enough, the voice that pushes you to go far beyond your limits.”
 

    • Emotional trauma

    • Candida Infection

    • IBS/Leaky Gut

    • Anxiety Disorder

    • Homemade Probiotics (healed my gut a lot over the years)

    • Vagus Nerve exercises (made up around 70% of my recovery)

    • Cranio-Sacral Therapy (working on the nervous system)

    • Mickel Therapy (keeps me healthy)

    • 16 years

  • Before the Storm: A Sudden Change

    • At 17, during a diving class in Egypt, Verena experienced her first panic attack.

    • Shortly after, she developed severe anxiety, dizziness, blood sugar crashes, and extreme fatigue.

    • Despite numerous medical visits, her symptoms were dismissed, leaving her without answers.

    Years of Struggle: Misunderstood and Limited

    • Physical Symptoms:

      • Heat and cold intolerance: She avoided outdoor activities due to fainting risks.

      • Food intolerances and IBS: Severe bloating and pain led to a highly restricted diet.

      • Chronic fatigue: Simple activities left her drained, with no energy for exercise or socialising.

    • Emotional Impact:

      • Isolation from friends and missed life experiences.

      • Constant fear of symptom triggers, leading to avoidance behaviours.

      • Frustration with being dismissed or misunderstood by doctors.

    A Turning Point: Discovering CFS

    • After 15 years, a chance YouTube video on CFS recovery resonated deeply.

    • For the first time, Verena realised her symptoms were connected and had a name: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

    • Inspired by recovery stories, she began exploring therapies and techniques for healing.

    The Path to Recovery

    • Key Strategies:

      • Practiced vagus nerve exercises consistently, which reduced stress responses.

      • Explored brain retraining and safety messages for the nervous system.

      • Began addressing the root causes of her symptoms, including unresolved emotional distress.

    • Breakthrough Moments:

      • A pivotal "book recovery" experience shifted her mindset and physical state instantly.

      • Gradually rebuilt physical stamina, regaining energy and capacity for exercise and social activities.

    Lasting Lessons and Healing

    • Mickel Therapy: Understanding that symptoms were messages from her body helped Verena make lasting changes.

    • Final Symptom Resolution: Letting go of external expectations and aligning her career with her true passions resolved her IBS, her last remaining symptom.

    A New Chapter: Helping Others

    • Verena is now a full-time Mickel Therapy practitioner, supporting others with CFS, Long COVID, and similar conditions.

    • Her journey taught her that recovery is possible by addressing root causes, calming the nervous system, and living authentically.

    Key Takeaway

    • "Don’t stop looking for what works for you." Verena’s story is a testament to perseverance, self-awareness, and the power of holistic healing.

  • Verena’s sites:

    Youtube Channel of

 

The calm before the storm

It was in 2007 when I was 17 years old when I was on a family vacation in Egypt and finished my diving licence. During the dive I had to take off my mask and experienced the first panic attack of my life. A bit unsettled but not concerned, I flew home from that vacation.

I then experienced another panic attack on the plane and little did I know that my life was about to go downhill for the next 16 years. For the next 12 months I developed a full blown anxiety and panic disorder. I knew that this diving incident had “woken” something up inside of me. I never struggled with anxiety before. In addition, briefly after the vacation I experienced nausea, dizziness and extreme blood sugar drops. I also lost a lot of weight which was concerning as I was naturally rather slim.  I started doing blood work and went to different doctors to check out what was suddenly wrong with me. As it got worse, I ended up in hospital as we thought maybe I caught a parasite or something similar during the vacation. All tests and blood work came back fine and I was sent home by annoyed doctors that told me I had an eating disorder. 

Nowadays I know that these blood sugar drops are just another symptom of CFS but back then I had never heard of CFS and it would stay like that for the next 15 years. For many years to come I grieved and wondered how my life would have turned differently if I had never booked that diving class. 

I know now, having recovered, that the diving incident that apparently caused my symptom onset was only the last straw that broke the camel's back. My body said it was enough. 

I am now convinced it would have happened sooner or later anyway, had I gone on that vacation or not. I am writing this as I know many people with Long Covid blame themselves that their life would be different if they just had not gone to that event, supermarket or birthday where they caught Covid. Covid very likely just was your last straw that broke the camel's back. 

 
 
“...they would surely just roll their eyes on me and send me home again. I did not want to get humiliated again so I never went to the doctors for it.”
 

The first years:

Blood sugar crashes, heat and cold intolerance, Fatigue crashes, Candida overgrowth.

At the time I started to fall ill with CFS my life appeared just fine, I was about to finish school next summer, had a nice boyfriend and no other stressors I was aware of.

I went on to study but my blood sugar drops gave me a hard time and no one could help me. I was then soon also diagnosed with candida overgrowth, which I now know was just another symptom of the CFS as my body was completely out of balance.

I was still fairly functioning but with the years I experienced severe crashes with fatigue. Since I did not know about CFS, I just wondered why I got so incredibly tired. At times I felt like someone had pulled a plug and I could not walk one step further.  I thought that it was maybe due to the blood sugar crashes as after each crash, once I had eaten, I was extremely exhausted for the next hours and had to sleep. I also developed severe heat intolerance just a few weeks after I came back from my Egypt vacation. The moment it was more than 18-20 degree Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) I got extremely dizzy and was about to faint. I tried to Google it but since I was ridiculed by doctors the first time I was in hospital I was convinced that if I,  then a healthy looking 20is year old girl, would say that I feel like I’m gonna faint with the slightest warm temperatures outside they would surely just roll their eyes on me and send me home again. I did not want to get humiliated again so I never went to the doctors for it.

I silently adapted by avoiding any activities outside from spring to fall. I had to skip college classes as it was “too hot” for me and too risky to even make it until my university. My plans to do a semester abroad in some exotic hot far away country? Forget about it. Going to a lake in summer? Forget about it. I would faint before arriving. For many years I just stayed at home where I felt safe from the heat. I also experienced severe cold intolerance, if I went for a 30 min walk on a snowy day my brain and body would not function for the rest of the day.

While I was never house or bed bound, the limitations this condition started giving me were immense. It was hard to explain to friends, as I looked healthy and normal, that I could not meet up because it is “warm” outside and I am exhausted. I felt stupid and ashamed and came up with all kinds of excuses why I could not join. It never occurred to me that all these weird random symptoms could by any chance be related at all.  My blood sugar drops got so bad that I carried food everywhere I went. I started to develop a huge anxiety around getting a blood sugar drop while driving or that I would be in a situation where I could not eat when I needed to. There was no experience of hunger as I knew it from the first 17 years of my life. The moment I felt hungry I would immediately be dizzy, shaky and feel like fainting if I did not start eating immediately. I also went to an alternative doctor I got recommended to. When I told him “my problem” he answered “but if you are hungry, just eat!? What is the issue?”. I was so angry and sad. He certainly did not mean to be mean but people just do not understand how it feels. I just thought “I would like to see you being with a patient and experiencing what I experience.” There are many situations, especially in a professional setting, where you can not just go to eat whenever you want to. I felt like no one understood me and my crashes.

Over the years I said no to a lot of vacations and trips as I just could not imagine how to handle the situation on the top of a mountain skiing (plus not having the energy after a crash to even make it back down..) or for example staying in a hotel where I would be dependent on certain “food hours”.

 
“Every decision I made was fear based. Fearing crashes and symptoms.  It felt like life became a daily task of constant hazard prevention and avoidance. It was exhausting.”
 
 

Onset of food intolerances and IBS

A few years later I then out of nowhere developed food intolerances.

It took me 2 years alone to figure out that the reason why my tummy was insanely bloated after every meal and started to hurt after every meal was food intolerances. Again, I did not even dare to see a doctor for it. Googling IBS makes it clear that there is nothing much a doctor can do for you anyway, so why bother I thought. I started to leave out gluten and dairy and while it helped a little, I got intolerant to more and more foods. I was down to a handful of foods I could eat. I got more and more frustrated with my body and my life. 

I had no energy, crazy blood sugar drops, could not leave the house once the sun was out and now I also could barely eat anything without my tummy going crazy. What the hell was going on with me.

Every decision I made was fear based. Fearing crashes and symptoms.  It felt like life became a daily task of constant hazard prevention and avoidance. It was exhausting.

I still had no clue that all my symptoms were related.

Overall  I just slowly started to wonder how it could be that every other year my body came around with another major new issue, which would limit my life more and more. I was eating extremely healthy, got comments from everyone around me about how healthy my lifestyle is but the reality was that I had the least energy of everyone I knew.

I started to be tired of it all. I also noticed that I just seemed to have such low stamina. Prior to falling ill I never worked out as I did not like it and since I was naturally slim I was rather trying to put on weight instead of losing more through doing sports.

Once I decided I really should get stronger and increase my stamina I started HIIT workouts and just noticed that I was dead for the rest of the day every time I tried it. So I only did them in the evenings so that my body could recover overnight. I was basically sleep crashing and did not notice the crash so much. I still felt horrendous after any exercise, like my body was eating itself. It was a mystery to me how people would go to the gym before hitting work. How did they have energy left to function after exercising? Nowadays I know that if you're living in a healthy body, you usually get more energy from working out…but not someone with CFS.

I just decided that I must be weak. One time I was visiting a wild zoo with my mum where there were many many steep hills and forest and I noticed that my almost 60 year older mother could swiftly walk up a very steep hill while I felt extremely nauseous, shaky and dizzy after doing the same. It dawned on me that something was just not how it should be here.

 
 
“I remember lying in bed one night and starting to scream as I was so, so angry. My whole life was an avoidance game. Everyone around me seemed to live their best life. ”
 

Losing hope

15 years into the illness I started to be really, really fed up by it all.

My world had become so small. Having moved to a rather hot country a few years prior did not help much either. I remember lying in bed one night and starting to scream as I was so, so angry. My whole life was an avoidance game. Everyone around me seemed to live their best life. Going to festivals, gatherings in the sun, weekend trips and camping. I wanted to do all of it so badly but I knew my body would not allow me to do it. I had a hard time finding any joy that was left in my life.

Healing my gut

While I felt I could not do much about my other symptoms I focused on fixing my gut.

Looking back I wasted so much money on supplements and overpriced probiotics.

It took me a few years to see some improvements and results with homemade probiotics. At some point I stumbled over a herbal medicine podcast and they recommend a herbal tea mix for IBS. Since I had nothing to lose I bought all the herbs I needed and drank 2 litres of this insanely bitter herbal concoction. To my surprise, after 2 months, for the first time in 5-6 years I had a normal bowel movement. I was over the moon excited and thus tried to dig deeper into herbalism and even started studying it for the next 2-3 years.

Spoiler alert: the initial improvement I had with my herbal mix did not last long and soon my tummy was back to chaos again. But somehow I was convinced I could find an answer in the herbalism world. Looking back now I think that my nervous system got some messages of safety each time I started a new “cure” or “fix” round. Everything that seemed to work for me (enzymes, CBD oil etc.) lasted more or less a month until all symptoms were back.

That was, because I never addressed the root cause of the symptoms.

 
 
“A year later my dad’s cancer came back and he passed away within 2 months. Busy with the funeral arrangement I noticed that now my cramping in hands got so severe that I could not properly type anymore on my laptop.”
 

A new symptom that made me completely freak out

It was around 14 years into my illness that my dad got diagnosed with a rare cancer with a bad prognosis. He had surgery and treatment and it all seemed ok for now but we knew that likely it would come back. It was a few months later on my birthday that I noticed a weird cramping in my hand when I was trying to hold my knife to cut my food. I instantly knew that something was wrong. The cramping did not come back for a while but then started to occur more and more often. I tried to ignore it. I was scared.

A year later my dad’s cancer came back and he passed away within 2 months. Busy with the funeral arrangement I noticed that now my cramping in hands got so severe that I could not properly type anymore on my laptop. It was like I had no control over my hands and I kept hitting the wrong letters. Within a month I had severe cramping in both of my hands. Then it started in both of my feet. I had knife-like pain at night in both of my feet and during the day it felt like I would walk on glass. Then severe muscle twitching joined the party. Not being able to ignore this any longer I started googling and it was not fun. The closet it sounded like was Neuropathy and ALS. ALS, the illness Stephen Hawking had where your body slowly loses control of all muscles. 

I totally freaked out.

My dad just passed and now I am possibly having a terminal illness? I went down a pretty bad rabbit hole.

Long story short, I kept ignoring my symptoms as that has worked fairly well the last 14 years but then decided to see my cranio-sacral therapist that I had seen for some yoga injuries in the past. Interestingly enough, now looking back, each time I went there in the past I noticed that the following days I could do exercises without feeling bad at all. I did not see the link to having visited the cranio-sacral therapist though, as I went for some pain in my knee and hand.

Once I told her about my symptoms she looked very concerned and mumbled something about the central nervous system and a bigger thing. Of course, her reaction freaked me out even more. If she was concerned, I really should be concerned. She did the session on me and within the next month all my cramping and twitching resolved. I was happy that it was gone. I knew she is extremely good at her work so I never spent a second thought on what has been going on there. 

Being recovered now and having learnt about our nervous system and Mickel Therapy, it is a mystery to me how I never related the cancer diagnosis and the death of my father with this symptoms onset. My body could have not communicated more obviously with me but I was completely oblivious to the two incidents being connected. 

Being a practitioner for CFS myself now I keep stumbling on people who had very good experiences with cranio-sacral therapy. I think if I would have understood that all my symptoms are linked and would have visited my therapist more often, it could have possibly made a huge difference for me.

 
“The longer she went on, the more I felt she was telling my story. Just that I felt like I had Long-Covid for 15 years. ”
 
 

The first hints of what was going on with me 

Since I had decided to study herbalism as it seemed to have worked for my tummy for a while I was on a Q&A Zoom Call with two herbal teachers.

Since they had decades of experience I took a chance to describe my condition, mainly that I would have this insane fatigue all the time and zero stamina and that I was not able to exercise but I felt I should be. The lady listened and started by saying that to her that sounds like Long Covid and if I had considered that. She went on to recommend some herbs to me. I had heard of Long Covid but did not know anything about it. I just knew that I had this for around 14 years so it surely could not be Long Covid as Covid did not exist in 2007.

The turning point

The turning point came for me, when I started to write down what I wanted to change in my life.

I was so done with it all. In the past it had worked for me for other areas of my life, that when I wrote things down that I wanted or wanted to achieve, they often manifested. I just did not think that could work with a physical illness to be honest. I wrote down that I wanna get rid of my heat intolerance and my food issues. I had no clue how that should be possible but writing it down would not hurt I decided.

Around that time I had a chat with a girl I had met a couple of times through my friend’s circle where I lived at that time. It turned out she had caught Long-Covid and we started talking about it as I was curious what that was. The longer she went on, the more I felt she was telling my story. Just that I felt like I had Long-Covid for 15 years.

A few days later and not long after I wrote down my “wish” to heal from all my weird symptoms a video popped up in my youtube feed of Raelan Agle and I remember reading “CFS” as title and wondering what the heck that was and why that video showed up as I never subscribed to that channel or watched a video of her before.

Until today I never knew how that video ended up there, if it was my phone stalking the conversation between me and my friend who had Long Covid, I was never happier to be stalked as this video initiated my recovery.

 
 
“From the moment I clicked the video, it took me 10 months to become completely symptom free. Except for my IBS that took another 6 months.”
 

Finally knowing that I had CFS

I opened it and listened to the recovery story that was told in that interview and I felt like I was being hit by a train. That was me. The girl there was telling my story. And she also said she recovered. Wait, what?

It was the first time in 15 years that I got to understand that all my weird symptoms were actually ONE condition: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 

Suddenly everything made sense.

From the moment I clicked the video, it took me 10 months to become completely symptom free. Except for my IBS that took another 6 months.

Start of recovery

Here is how I did it. Finally knowing what the issue was I felt like the first time in 15 years that I could do something about it.  I started to watch every recovery video I could find on Raelans Channel and I quickly signed up for the Primal Trust Program by Cathleen King.

The program itself was a bit overwhelming for me as I was still pretty brain fogged and it was a lot of information about things I never heard before. Body is stuck in fight/flight/freeze. Cell danger response. You need to accept your condition in order to start healing. It did not resonate much with me and I was filled with resistance.” I absolutely do not accept that condition!”, I thought to myself.

Well, back then I simply did not really know what she meant by saying that.

Nowadays I do. Back then I just wanted to get my hands on every practical thing I could do so I fast forwarded to the exercises she had in the program. With the theory I could deal later, I thought.

I started to do the vagus nerve exercises she suggested and was very consistent with them. I experienced a shift pretty fast, probably around 6 weeks into the exercises

(*if you want the exercises just shoot me a message as I have recorded them myself now and happy to forward them, you don’t need to buy the Primal Trust Program to get them). 

Then one day I went to a dog shelter where I go once in a while to walk dogs and I looked up at my boyfriend and said “Something is different!”. For my taste it was a “hot day” and all the dogs usually go crazy when you enter the shelter as they get excited about who will be picked for a walk. For me it was always a major stress  going there as the heat and the loud noise were way too much for me. Since I love dogs I did it anyway and just suffered my way through. Walking small loops around the shelter in case I got dizzy.

That day however I was looking into a kennel and realised that I was super calm. Not stressed. Not overwhelmed. I didn't even know anymore how that felt, as my nervous system had been on edge for years on end. Just 2-3 weeks later I felt weirdly wired but also kinda energetic. I was not used to feeling energetic and I thought that I might as well try a run then. I went for a 10-15 min run (unheard of the last 15 years) and as soon as I was 10 metres into the run I knew my body was different. I have not felt that good running all the times I tried the last 15 years and usually gave up a few metres or a hundred metres into the run. This time my legs were light, no instant headache. No headache at all. Usually after more than a few metres I would feel like someone tied concrete blocks to my calves and my head would explode any moment. 

 

Next day after my 15 min run, in pain and fatigued but happy 

 
“I was chatting with strangers all evening long while yelling over the loud music for hours to hold the conversation. I went home, totally relaxed... ”
 

Game changer experience

That day I went for that run was a huge game changer for me. I experienced for a moment how it felt to live in a body that functions. I understood that my body was capable of functioning. If you felt like crap for 15 years you think that this is just how your body is for the rest of your life.

The next day however, I felt absolutely terrible. I crashed as the run was a bit too much for my system I guess. Now I know I should have taken it a little slower but I also don’t regret it. I just felt so good the moment I was running.  

I tried brain retraining as well as it was part of the program but looking back with what I know now, I didn't do it right, nor did I understand the concept properly. Thus, it did not work for me.

I went on doing my vagus nerve exercises for the next 9 months and my symptoms were slowly but surely getting better and better and my energy kept increasing. By the next summer my heat intolerance was almost gone, no more blood sugar drops and overall I had much less fatigue and much more capacity which I realised when I went to a party for the first time in years (decades?) and was not completely overwhelmed but the opposite, I was chatting with strangers all evening long while yelling over the loud music for hours to hold the conversation. I went home, totally relaxed and only then realised that usually I would have been totally exhausted from such a situation. But I felt great.

After around 9 months the only thing I still could not do was exercising and things like really long steep stairs, they would send me into a crash for the rest of the day.

 
“Slowly I learnt to trust my body again and slowly I crawled out of my hole that I have been hiding in the last 16 years. ”
 
 

Fear of Relapses 

Once I had all my energy back an interesting chapter started as I lived in a lot of fear that my recovery may not last. Each day I woke up and was scared that a symptom was back. I did not know how my body fully recovered just by reading a text. I was sure that if symptoms would come back it would probably not work just reading the same text twice. So instead of just being happy as hell I was scared as hell at the same time.

It was too good to be true. I think it took me a couple of months just to realise what had happened. After 16 years my thoughts were so wired for illness, that my head simply could not catch up and believe that I was well again. At that time I had spent half my life with that condition. I had forgotten how to live life without constantly checking for potential “threats” around everything I do. I had forgotten how it feels to not be completely fatigued just by 2-3 pm of every day. That you can do more than one activity a day and still have energy to go to the movies the same night. Slowly I learnt to trust my body again and slowly I crawled out of my hole that I have been hiding in the last 16 years. 

New Horizon

It was not long after I had my energy back that I did a run early in the morning down a hill facing the ocean.

Before I felt ill I hated sports and never cared about exercising.

Now I enjoyed so much how my body felt when running, I had a total bliss state. That day when I was facing the ocean and the sun came up felt like a dream to me. It was when I finished that run and took a break that I realised my biggest wish is to help others have the same experience. To be out and about again, running, being in nature and feeling alive with a functioning body.

I decided at that moment that I would help others get their life back, now that I knew recovery is possible. So many people fall ill with CFS or Long-Covid and are told that they have to deal with it for the rest of their lives, which I now know is simply not true.

 

9 months in with my vagus nerve exercises I did this 2,5 hour hike

 
“How could I have been so blind to what happened before I fell ill? But I was. ”
 

Mickel Therapy

I started to dig deeper into everything I could find about CFS and recovery to better understand how I can help others. Besides, I still was a bit nervous that my energy would not stay but leave me again and I would have a relapse. So I also knew that everything I would find and learn would be beneficial for me as well. 

From the moment I watched the first recovery video on Raelans Channel until the day I fully recovered (around 10 months) I kept stumbling on Mickel Therapy. People seemed to have great recovery stories, at least the few videos I found on it on Raelans Channel. I did not find much about Mickel Therapy and just was not sure what it was and if it would be worth trying it. So I never tried it as I did not want to waste more money.

It was during the time I tried to understand CFS and Long Covid better that I ended up again with Mickel Therapy and I checked the website to get more information and saw there was a practitioner training coming up in just 2 weeks. My gut feeling told me to do it and on a whim I signed up for it. Worst case I would hopefully find some information on how I can make sure to stay well.

Understanding the root cause of my illness

The training was mind blowing for me. It was nothing like all the other concepts I had come across until that point. 

Mickel Therapy assumes that there is a root cause to your symptoms. So the root cause is the problem, not the symptoms. All the years I had desperately tried to just get rid of my symptoms. With not much success which I then understood why. 

Everyone else in the training had recovered with Mickel Therapy while I was the only one who had not so I was totally new to the concept.

We learnt how to work out the root cause and since I had not had that experience in the past another participant did it with me and I literally felt once again that I was hit by a train. How could I have been so blind to what happened before I fell ill? But I was. I was almost shocked by what I learnt in that training, it totally changed my understanding of my condition. While I had become aware during my recovery that my body was in fight/flight/freeze I never questioned WHY it ended up there. Now that I help people recover I know it is a bit different for everyone but for me it was long-term unresolved distress from childhood experiences.

 

Reaching a steep mountain peek after having recovered

 
“...My body sends me clear messages and I know if I ignore them my body is the stronger one to stop me if needed. ”
 

What we all have in common

While every story is different there are major components that are the same for every person I got to know with CFS, Fibromyalgia and Long Covid.

I started to wonder and notice how come that each and every person I work with seems to have the same personality traits. They almost all have what I call a pathological inner critic. The voice in your head that tells you that you are not good enough, the voice that pushes you to go far beyond your limits, the voice that makes you pressure yourself to a level that is not healthy, the voice that makes sure you put everyone's needs before your own needs. Everyone carries a strong feeling of guilt and shame when they turn to their own needs.

Almost everyone is a severe people pleaser. 

While everyone has a nuance of this voice in their head, people with CFS and Long Covid have an extreme version of this inner critic. I dug deeper and did additional training and came to understand that this inner critic usually is developed within the first 7 years of our lives and it is also the reason why we have never learnt to be truly good to ourselves.

Learning the language of my body 

So how did that all help me stay well myself until today? I truly believe in Mickel Therapy and can not understand why it is not bigger and more known.

Mickel Therapy is a simple concept, it's about understanding that symptoms are messages from your body. Your body is trying to communicate with you. Since we do not speak the language of our bodies, especially in the western world, we usually are not good at understanding our bodies. Once we learn what is the reason and the message underneath a certain symptom increases, symptoms become much less scary.

In Mickel Therapy I learnt to understand my body and to give it what it is asking from me in a specific moment and situation. I am convinced that I did not have a relapse because I keep applying the principles of Mickel Therapy in my daily life. Until today my body sends me clear messages and I know if I ignore them my body is the stronger one to stop me if needed.

Since I have no interest in ever getting CFS again, I “do” what my body “asks” me to do even if sometimes it can get uncomfortable but I know that it is serving me in the long run.

I now have changed my view completely on experiencing symptoms and anxiety and I also learnt that many people experience anxiety as it can be a pre-symptom of developing CFS. This helped me understand why I experienced a year of severe anxiety after my diving incident and that even that was related to my CFS. 

Nowadays when I feel a little anxiety creeping in I no longer get scared and feel helpless and confused by the sensation.  Instead I take a moment, pause, understand that my body is “talking” to me and I sit down to fuígure out what it has to say to me.

Once I figured it out and do what it asks for, the anxiety is gone. For the first time ever I feel I am in touch with my body. My body makes sure I meet my needs otherwise it will let me feel it. If I work with my body instead of against it (by trying to fight symptoms) I know I will live a life that is good for me and resonates with my values. 

Healing my last remaining symptom, IBS

The last major shift for me happened when I decided to become a full time Mickel Therapy practitioner.

My IBS, my only remaining symptom, disappeared within 2 weeks after I made that decision.

While by that time I was able to eat most food again, gluten and dairy were still things I could not touch without feeling extremely bad the next day. 

And then, it just went away almost overnight.  Once again, I was just mind-blown. How was such a quick shift even possible? How was my tummy after 9 years with IBS able to just perfectly function again within a few days?

Another experience hard to fathom on this whole journey. But what I had learnt through Mickel Therapy helped me understand that my entire life I was seeking a professional path that was not really aligned with what I actually wanted. I did things I deep down thought I had to do, to satisfy my inner critic, to live up to the expectations of others. Once I set myself free from that mindset and took action, I lost my last symptom. 

It may sound hard to read if you are still in the thick of this illness but while I have lost endless opportunities and experiences in my 16 years with this condition, it has made me who I am today and I would not change it for anything.

Each day I am so grateful waking up, feeling my body being filled with energy after 16 years of unrefreshed sleep. I get to work with amazing people every day and I am so in love with what I do. I am almost sure I would not live this life today, so aligned with myself, without the illness.

Jan Rothney was right, I think everyone with this condition can recover. Don’t stop looking for what works for you. 

Katy McGhie
Next

Jackie Baxter’s Story