Is ME/CFS Real – Or Is It All In Your Head?
If you have a long term illness, such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), or migraines, you may have heard some of these comments from others:
“You just need to get more sleep/exercise/meditation.”
“You’re just stressed/depressed/anxious.”
“You’re just lazy/weak/attention-seeking.”
“You’re just making it up/imagining it/exaggerating it.”
These comments are not only rude, insensitive, and ignorant, but they are also wrong.
If you ever doubt it for a moment, I want you to listen to me right now. You. Have. Not. Imagined. This. Illness.
At Recovered, we don’t claim to have medical expertise or scientific authority. We simply share the experiences of people who have recovered. And from those stories, one message is clear: ME/CFS is real. It’s physical. And it is absolutely not “just in your head.”
The Reality of ME/CFS
Everyone in our recovery library has experienced intense physical symptoms: exhaustion that isn’t helped by sleep, brain fog so thick that conversation is hard, muscle pain, dizziness, and more. Karen Wright described it as "living in a body that felt broken every day."
These symptoms were not imagined. They disrupted lives - careers ended, relationships strained, and years were lost to bedrooms and darkened rooms. The people in our stories were not malingering, lazy, or mentally unwell. They were very sick. And they were trying everything they could to get well.
Why Are the Causes So Hard to Pin Down?
Across our recovery stories, practically all individuals describe scenarios of trauma, chronic stress, or deep physical/emotional overwhelm before illness onset - highlighting common underlying patterns that don't rely on speculative names.
Payton’s Story
Experienced a “function-then-crash” survival loop, juggling motherhood, career, and chronic pain until exhaustion overwhelmed her.
Recovery came through addressing long-standing nervous system dysregulation, recognising internalised anxiety, perfectionism, and unresolved trauma as driving factors.
In her words, emotional suppression and nervous system overload were central.
Verena’s Story
After a panic attack in adolescence, she spiralled into years of anxiety, blood sugar dysregulation, IBS, and chronic fatigue.
Verena describes repeated "fear-based avoidance" and internalised pressure that kept her body stuck in defensive mode for over a decade.
Recovery began only when she recognised those emotional patterns and used vagus‑nerve work to restore system regulation.
Karen’s Long Covid Story
As a full-time NHS physiotherapist and high-achieving mother, she "never stopped … always on the go," racing toward success and people-pleasing until her nervous system crashed.
Her initial COVID‑19 infection led to post-viral fatigue, which was compounded by years of unresolved emotional trauma and overdrive habits.
She finally recovered by slowing down, accepting deep rest, working with acceptance-based therapy, and reprioritising her needs.
What These Themes Reveal
Trauma and Chronic Stress
Many contributors describe long-term exposure to emotional or situational pressure (e.g., caregiving, perfectionism) that preceded illness.Pre‑illness Nervous System Overactivity
Whether through panic, hypervigilance, burnout, or high-functioning stress, the body enters a state of survival — and stays there.Delayed Onset Patterns
Some experienced a sudden trigger (panic attack, virus, surgery), others a gradual buildup—but in all cases, the nervous system struggled to reset.Not the Same as Mental Illness
These symptoms aren’t psychological weaknesses; they’re signs of an overstressed physiological system. Verena reflects: the body wasn't broken - it was protecting her, without knowing how to stop.
Why This Matters
This helps explain why so many experienced ME/CFS or Long COVID only after years of constant internal stress and overdrive.
It reinforces that these are real, physical conditions rooted in a dysregulated system - not in “imagined” symptoms.
In every recovery story, the turning point came from learning to feel safe again, rewiring the nervous system, and restoring energetic balance.
Is There Hope?
All of the stories on Recovered are written by people who have one thing in common: they got better. The path to recovery looked different for everyone - some used mindbody approaches, some focused on nervous system regulation, some used pacing or brain retraining tools. But in every case, they describe learning to relate to their symptoms differently. They stopped fighting their bodies and started listening to them. Many found ways to shift their internal state from fear to safety.
Recovery wasn’t linear or easy. But it was possible.
So, Is It All in Your Head?
No. It’s in your body. It’s in your cells, your nervous system, your lived experience. But just because something begins in the body doesn’t mean it can’t be healed through the mind. As many of our storytellers show, when the nervous system is able to feel truly safe again, the body often starts to respond in surprising ways.
This doesn’t mean the illness wasn’t real.
It means recovery is.
