Why I think it is the RT and not just good luck

I thought I'd try and explain why I think it is the RT that is responsible for my improvements and not just the way things would have gone anyway.

I started my RT on July 18th.

Between January and July, I improved a lot. There have however been fundamental differences between the improvements I have made pre and post RT. That is what I will try to explain.

Before RT, I was gradually increasing my activity. I would do something for example, go for a walk and I would possibly get away with it the first time. I would increase this and at some point I would get a flare up. By that I mean the floppy fatigue, brain fog, disturbed sleep that comes on the next day or a couple of days later and takes days or weeks to shift. Now we all know that is one of the trade marks of M.E.

It happened with gardening too. I did gentle gardening, for 15 minutes, got away with it, went up to 20, that was OK, then 30, that was OK, then fogot to watch the time and did about 40 minutes. That time, I crashed and it took me 2 weeks to get back to normal. I have found it difficult to get the balance right when increasing and regularly go over my limit, just a bit and pay for it in days or weeks. That was before RT though.

Since doing RT, I have been increasing my activity, particularly the physical stuff. I have not had an M.E. flare up as a direct result of what I have done. I have had a couple of flare ups, one because of my period and one because of a bug, but not because I have walked too far, or swam too much.

I can still feel the remnanats of these symptoms, particularly at night. For example, yesterday I went for a swim after not swimming for a couple of weeks. I swam the same distance that I did last time. During the night I woke up and my head was saying, 'oh no, you overdid it!'. Flippin headmind! I thought I wasn't going to get back to sleep, which is what would have happened before. Anyway, the next thing I know its 9.30am. I can feel tension in my neck, but it doesn't feel like the tension I get in my neck which is a symptom. This just feels like I used the muscles across my shoulders, which I did because I swim breast stroke.

I think the key to this is constantly checking in with Bodymind. I regularly stop and do a quick scan and if I can't feel any symptoms, I continue. I also think that the reason why there has been a shift pre and post RT is because of the symptom message. I really feel that it is reprogramming my brain. Finally, if my bodymind says, 'I want to lie down and rest' that is what I do - I try not to push myself against bodymind, but I do push my body gently. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think you have to work out what are M.E. symptoms and what is just normal body reactions to increasing activity. Normal aches are OK to push gently, but symptoms are not.

Anyway, I just want to say that all this is just my personal experience and personal opinions. RT may not work or may work differently for others - I think you have to find a route that speaks to you. I'm just hoping to add to the available information that is out there on RT, because I couldn't find much.