Vitamin B Complex.

I take several vitamins a day, but something that has made a massive difference to me is Vitamin B Complex, I don't know why it works so well but it does.On the container it says that is supports normal energy yielding metabolism and contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, it does what is says on the tin. I can tell that there is a significant difference for me in my CFS symptoms. They aren't very expensive and the tub lasts for ages, you can get them in most supermarkets or you can order them online (which is usually cheaper) from a reputable store, I often buy mine from Holland & Barrett, you can find them here: http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=60&prodid=667&cid=83 this is £17.99, which is really good value for money, you get 250 tablets, so will last you 250 days, the majority of the year, you can get smaller packs and there are always offers on as well.

Everyday I also take Vitamin D3, Cod Liver Oil Tablets (get the tablets the actual oil tastes horrible and is less practical) and Multivitamins, which contains: vitamins A, D, E, C, B1, B2, B6, B12 (extra); Niacin; Folic acid and Pantothenic acid. All of these you can get supermarkets and Holland & Barrett. Since I have begun to take all of these I have noticed that my immune system is better and I have got less colds, iron is something that improves your immune system, you can get multivitamins that have iron in as well which is something to look out for.
I would recommend you trying all of these, they may work for you, they may not, they could even just work as a placebo effect, I don't know, but try them!

I would love it if you left comments below telling me about your experiences.Or if you want to ask me anything personally, email me at ateenwithcfs@gmail.com

 ☮

Worrying.

Worrying is something that I do a lot, I am not as bad as I used to be but I am still pretty bad, especially when it comes to CFS as I am sure many of you are. Worrying is something that can really wear you out and just make your CFS symptoms worse which was probably the thing that you were worrying about in the first place, as I have begun to worry less I have noticed that it has been an attributing factor to my recovery.
When I look back now at the things I used to worry about, such as 'what if I never get rid of CFS' or 'how am I ever going to catch up on all of the school work that I have missed' but I have archived both of those things, and you can to.
Everyone has different ways of coping with worrying, one of mine is distraction, just distract yourself think of something else; for example if your worrying about the things that I mentioned earlier, think about how great your life will be when your CFS has gone and you have caught up with all of your school work, all of the amazing things that you are going to do, the job your going to get and how CFS has changed you for the better as a person. Another might be to think about it logically like in the picture below.

There are so many ways you can deal with worrying, you just have to find the one that works for you. Once you find it and use it properly it will make a massive difference to how tired you get and you will feel a happier person!

I would love it if you left comments below telling me about your experiences.Or if you want to ask me anything personally, email me at ateenwithcfs@gmail.com

 ☮

What not to do.

There are several things that I have found you really shouldn't do, and now that they have been pointed out to me I notice that I do get worse if I do any of these things: eat things containing MSG (Monosodium glutamate), this is a flavour enhancer and in lots of foods, crisps/chips, not all of them, if you check the packaging, often supermarkets generic version does not contain MSG. This also includes the majority of fast foods for example KFC, McDonalds as well as Chinese takeaways, it if fine if you have these kind of things occasionally as a treat but try to avoid them on a day to day basis
Shops that have garish lighting (you may have noticed this already), lighting like this, or where there is very little natural light can make you feel physically drained and something that I experienced was dizziness.
Don't worry. I am someone who worries far to much over insignificant things I try not to but I still do, I have become a lot better at not worrying, but it can tire you out so much and when it is over insignificant things or things you can't do anything about: an example of this that I would often worry about is 'what if I can never catch up with all of my school work' or 'what if my CFS never goes' well I have achieved both of these things over time and you will to. In the future I may do a how to deal with stress/worrying post, please comment if you would like me to do that.


I would love it if you left comments below telling me about your experiences.

☮

Managing your time/ sleep patterns

Managing sleeping patterns, I have found is really important, at first I didn't really like doing it but it has now become my natural sleeping pattern, I made sure that I would always get up around 8am. If at the moment you would find getting up at 8am impossible, cut it back gradually wake up ten or fifteen minuets earlier than you did the day before. I found that 11pm was the time when I normally go to sleep.
My phiso suggested I record when I sleep, when I do high activities e.c.t I didn't find it very useful, but it is basically a table with each hour and day as little boxes, green is rest (doing nothing at all), orange is low activity, read is high activity and blue is sleep, I recommend that if you do this you make a list of what you consider to be high activity and low activity because this can be different for everyone depending on how severe they have CFS.

If you are struggling to get to sleep at night which I did, but don't any more thanks to these tricks; half an hour before you want to go to sleep, turn off all screens, for example TV, laptop, tablet, mobile phone e.c.t. I would then read (in particular books I had read before so I didn't have to concentrate to much) or listen to the radio or music; another thing that you can do that I have become really good at (lots of  practice) is daydream!
Now that I have done this I find I naturally wake up at these times, I find it is fine to have an extra hour sleep at the weekend I am fine and it doesn't make me really tired.

I would love it if you left comments below telling me about your experiences.Or if you want to ask me anything personally, email me at ateenwithcfs@gmail.com

☮

At the beginning...

When I was first diagnosed with CFS I had no idea what it was, and the doctor couldn't tell me that much about it, obviously I knew the symptoms because I had them! But I still felt like I didn't know anything about what it was, I had so many questions: why have I got this? How long is it going to last? How can I get rid of it? Well I never got a straight answer to any of them, but I know a lot more now than I used to, so I thought I would share my knowledge.

My symptoms began after having a swine flu vaccination (November 2010) which gave me the symptoms of swine flu, I believe that this could of been the thing that triggered it (CFS) along side going back to school to early, when I really didn't feel very well. Throughout the winter months it continued to get worse, so we went to the doctors and they did blood tests for various things including iron deficiency; the results came back saying that I had really healthy blood, which I found almost frustrating, by now, I just wanted to know what it was. By this point I had been referred to a paediatrician, in January (2011) the doctor told me that I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that there was no know cure for it but that he would make appointments for me to visit a physiotherapist and CBT (cognitive brain therapy).
Around this time was when I found my symptoms to be at their worst, I would rarely leave my bed room, never mind my house, other than hospital appointments, however I would avoid sleeping thought the day but to my annoyance would not be able to sleep through the night, even if I began to try getting to sleep at 8pm, I could still be awake at 4am.
During this time I had missed a lot of school, my mum and dad went for a meeting with my head of year and well being coordinator and they set up for me to go on a reduced timetable, where I would just go in for a few lessons a day, this began around April, although I began to seem better towards the end of the winter, I still found it really hard and would maybe go in for one or two lessons because I would be so exhausted; the next day I would have to stay off.
I am sure many of you will of had similar experiences to me or you are currently going through this, over time I have learnt different ways of dealing with it, things that have worked successfully for me and things that were recommended to me by my physiotherapist, that didn't work for me but might work for you.

I would love it if you left comments below telling me about your experiences.

☮