Lightning Process (LP)

Hi – It’s Kate here, from the UK. I have always been a trier. I tried hard at school, at Uni, at work, at losing weight, at baking the best cakes, at being a good friend, at going above and beyond… you get the picture! I was always wired, always on the go, never having time and always stressed about it! When all this trying eventually caught up with me, I was working three jobs and volunteering on four teams at my church.

From August 2017 until December 2018, I was bedridden and completely dependent on care. I was unable to stand upright or eat by myself. How did I get there?

It is like a zipper that you draw up slowly, tooth by tooth, until it is whole once more. This is a process one must learn and practice as one goes forward. You must create new experiences through success. This has nothing to do with ‘thinking yourself well again’, but rather understanding yourself well.

I was ill for a whole chapter of my life, which I simply cannot bear to describe. But today I am well.

My name is Lotte, and I am 35 years old. I climb high mountains, I swim in the sea no matter the weather, I play with my son, I work, I hang out with friends, I sing, go to the movies and to concerts, to late-night dinners, and I love cooking and having guests over. I LIVE!

My despair was overwhelming. The doctors gave me no hope of being able to recover from ME. On the contrary I remember a specialist saying: “You must lie down and rest, maybe for the rest of your life.”

The hardest thing for me was that I had no idea how long I would be sick. Maybe the rest of my life. I wish that Google, the information I received and what patients were generally told could to a greater extent convey that one can actually get well.

At Haukeland Hospital, I was told that I had contracted a serious neurological disease, for which there was no cure.

The basic summary of the cause of my illness is a familiar one. As far as I believe, the cause was burnout, plus the trigger of a nasty flu bug at the same time. From this I never properly recovered, and things quickly spiralled out of control. However, looking back at my life with hindsight, it is easy to see that there was already a foundation of issues which were affecting my health, and paving the way for a future illness.

Since I got well again I have completed my medical studies within the normal timeframe and then worked as a doctor, full time, including night shifts of 19 hours, with no more fatigue than any of my colleagues, before making the decisive choice that life is too short to carry on with the hectic lifestyle that I was used to.

I have always been a girl who enjoyed being active. I went to the US for a year after high school and worked as an au pair. When I came back home in the summer of 2016 it only took me a couple of weeks before I started working again. For almost three months I even had two jobs.

In the first part of 2016 I was a social and active 20-year-old girl. I really enjoyed working as a personal trainer, I had a boyfriend, was frequently working out and generally happy about my life.

The Lightning Process (LP) is a disputed topic, and most of what you read about it, is negative. I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) myself. If I had believed all the negative things I read on the net, I would not have recovered.

I was once one of the most severely sick people in Norway diagnosed with ME in the period between 2006 and 2009. I will give a brief account of my story, how I fell ill and how I got better and also what I think about it all today because that is actually the most interesting aspect; what I have understood today.

I fell ill after having had mononucleosis at upper secondary school – without knowing it. I noticed symptoms, but did not understand what was happening to me as I celebrated the end of school. This was in 2014.

I’ve noticed a significant relationship between circumstances in my life, especially things that happened in my childhood, and my health.

Hi, my name is Hanne and now in 2019 I am 27 years old. Hoping that my story will bring courage and help to others, I would like to share it here. From 2006 to 2008, I was one of the most severe cases of ME/CFS in Norway. However, after two and a half years of illness, I actually recovered completely. What happened to me?

My perception of the condition we refer to as ME is that there are various causes for what is then given one diagnosis. It is a process, a spiral down into unwellness from various beginning events, which is ultimately diagnosed as ME.

I will tell you what happened when I fell ill with CFS/ME and then recovered.

This is to you, you who stood by me when I was so very ill with ME. We have not spoken since. However, you, and many others, made such a difference in my life and I never really got to thank you.

After many years of working long days and putting my body through a lot of physical and mental stress as a management consultant and athlete, I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis in December 2013.

Camilla tried everything. After seven years of serious illness, she finally discovered a way to recover completely.

I developed ME after a bout of mononucleosis in the spring of 2003. This happened at a time where all events in my life were pointing upwards.

Many years have passed, I now have several children and work as a psychologist. If there is one thing I see more and more clearly, it is how much our emotions, thoughts and relationships affect our health.

A lot of people associate me with football and the fact that I was considered one of Norway´s greatest talents. However, the most interesting thing about me today is that, because of my experiences, I am among those who are most knowledgeable about ME, chronic fatigue syndrome. This condition is often viewed as deeply mysterious. It’s not a great mystery at all to me.

One day in February 2010 I felt ill, properly knocked out. I thought it was the flu and I might be off work for a few days. I got better and returned to work. But a few days later I was ill again, and this time I didn’t recover.

And that’s why the full story has to be told, so that you can think: If this person can do it, then so can I!

My body did not recover after infectious mononucleosis in 2006. At that time, I was only 16 years old. I got worse in 2018 and was on sick leave for long periods of time. In 2012, as a 22-year-old girl, I got the ME-diagnosis (serious degree)

It was in February 1999, at the age of 55, that Nina first felt that her body did not function normally. After getting an ankle fracture in the slalom hill she got a persistent low fever and easily got sweaty and tired.