Ben had suffered with M.e for 7 years. He took the Lightning Process when he was 18.
"I'm feeling entirely back to normal.
One of the potential stumbling blocks in recovering from M.E. is that, occasionally, you'll come across something that you used to attribute to being ill and find that it's just part of normal life. Being tired, for example. Everyone gets tired, and I can see how easily one could go back down the M.E. path due to stress, physical exertion etc. I imagine this is how relapses occur: the former sufferer's own worries about the recurrance of the condition could actually bring it back...one of the many little ironies of the condition. Knowing what I know now, however, I can see clearly that this is the only way my illness could return, and that the tools for preventing this are entirely in my hands.
For someone who has suffered from M.E., there can be no greater comfort. To know that you are in charge of yourself once more; to know that you will no longer have to plan everything out beforehand (and quite possibly do nothing as a consequence); to realise that you are not confined to your bedroom, your house, your garden, all the small places you have existed, and that you can reach out into the world and do anything you set your mind to.
I have begun to do this. There are no longer any obstacles to my progress.
I am not a new person...I am the original person, who had remained hidden behind illness for such a long time. It's good to be back!"
Ben
April 2006