The process of healing from a lingering health problem is like a journey down the road of recovery. It presents many challenges for each person who embarks on it, but outweighing the challenges is the wonderful reward of discovering how much power you have to affect how you feel, physically as well as emotionally and mentally. This is especially exciting if you have been living with the sense of frustration and helplessness that plagues most people with adrenal fatigue. Often after reading self help books such as this, people start out doing the program with enthusiasm. Then, as soon as they come across a few frustrations or setbacks, they quit and go on to something else, some other “quick fix.” I cannot emphasize enough how critical it is that you see the program all the way through to recovery, reassessing yourself occasionally so that you can adjust and continue. My 24 years of clinical experience as an alternative physician have brought me many very ill patients. With rare exception, when recovering from a long illness there are setbacks, frustrations, and periods of discouragement (see illustration - “Road to Recovery”).
This by no means indicates that therapy is not working or that you are not progressing. In most instances, nothing could be further from the truth. It is simply a setback. Getting well is very much like the adage, two steps forward and one step back. The step backwards can be as valuable as the step forward. Therefore, as you go into this program, it is important to keep perspective and realize that there will be setbacks, there will be delays and there will be disappointments, but there will also be progress. The progress will outweigh the setbacks and will be well worth the effort.
It is especially important to re-iterate this point to you because frustration and discouragement are experienced intimately by most people suffering from adrenal fatigue. When you start on the road to recovery and have a setback, you may become discouraged and frustrated even more easily than someone recovering from a different illness because frustration and discouragement are part of the adrenal fatigue syndrome itself. But do not give up! Even when things are not going like they should and you have tried everything, do not despair. Often, it is the next thing you do, or sometimes it is just the amount of time needed for the program to work. If you keep trying, there is hope. If you give up and quit doing the things that make you better, you can be sure your chances of healing are slim to none. So the first and last rule of this program is never give up.
No restorative therapy can work unless you stick to it long enough to see if it is going to be effective. For example, adrenal recovery will take at least three months, and may take up to two years. That does not mean that you will not see any improvement in that time. Some people start feeling better in the first week, especially if they dramatically improve their diet or make changes in their lifestyle that greatly reduce stress. But typically you should not expect changes before at least three weeks.
The changes often come so subtly that they are not always recognized, so I advise patients to keep journals in which they jot down notes daily about how they are feeling, what they are able to do, and their general overall symptoms. On days when you are feeling discouraged, you can go back to the early journal entries and note that you have made progress even though it does not feel that way at the moment. As you get better you will find that you are able to do and complete more things, your frame of mind is improving, generally things are going more smoothly in your life (see illustration –”Recovery from Adrenal Fatigue”), and you are better able to handle the rocky times. Like the illustration shows, you will begin to trade the heavy lead ball that holds you back for the things that lift you up. You will even have happy days or nearly happy days, replacing all those bleak ones that came before. Note the happy days in your journal. They will serve as landmarks and as inspiration on other days when you need encouragement.
Most health problems can be overcome with natural therapies. With the right natural therapy there can actually be cure, not just symptomatic relief or temporarily feeling better. I once had a nurse who came to work in my office after being employed for many years in a typical medical office. During her 90-day review, I asked her if she liked working in my clinic and she responded with enthusiasm that she did. When I asked her why she quickly replied, “Because people actually get well here!” Be assured that in most instances it is possible for you to recover from adrenal fatigue totally and completely. Try the program outlined in this book for three months. If after three months you have not made significant progress as assessed by your journal entries as well as objective and subjective signs and symptoms, go back to the previous chapter “Trouble-shooting.” This chapter should help you uncover the possible reasons why your adrenals are still not responding.
It may comfort (or discomfort) you to know that people with adrenal fatigue often receive only limited sympathy from others and sometimes their symptoms are met with irritation and impatience from themselves and others. The reason for this is that although your ability to function has been reduced by adrenal fatigue, you have no scars or any other visible sign of disability, and usually no lab tests or doctor’s diagnosis to confirm your illness. In most cases you are still able to carry on some sort of life.
Therefore, once you discover that you have adrenal fatigue, even though the diagnosis gives you a sense of validation, do not expect a tremendous amount of understanding from other people. In fact, several patients have commented to me that they cannot wait until this book comes out because they want to give a copy of it to their parents or spouse or other loved one so that that person will know that they are suffering from an actual illness. In other cases, people want a copy to confirm to someone that they are not mentally ill, that they were right not to have had a hysterectomy or some other therapy their medical doctor recommended as a solution for their symptoms. Trust yourself, even when the people around you do not see what is going on with you, adrenal fatigue is real and what you experienced is real. These same people will be happy to see you getting better, even if they don’t understand what is wrong.
As you improve you may hear comments about looking better, being more pleasant to be around, or other compliments. After several months, people you have not seen for a long time may remark on how different you seem. Take these comments as favorable indicators that your program is working and that you are indeed recovering.
The road to recovery needs constant fine-tuning. As you improve, new health problems may be uncovered, and as you resolve those, a greater level of health overall will be achieved, specifically adrenal health. It requires a general vigilance and awareness about yourself, your responses to things, your growing awareness of attitudes and beliefs that limit your recovery, your improved lifestyle and your conviction to stay on the road to recovery. Writing these observations in a journal works well because sometimes such insights are fleeting even when they seem unforgettably obvious at the moment. If you write them down as you experience them, not only will they will be available to you at a later date but you may gain a clearer understanding of their significance and their place in your own personal health puzzle.
Although regaining your health and vitality is very important and requires considerable commitment and persistence on your part, do not to wrap your entire life up into getting well. This creates a compulsiveness that is not usually conducive to restoring health. It causes you to be driven by the effort to get well which then becomes just another source of stress draining your adrenals. Simply work out your program, do your program consistently with awareness, and live your life day by day. Each day is a new opportunity to be kind to yourself and your body.
Suffice it to say that the road to recovery is one that each person must take by themselves and for themselves. It is one of the best, most educational, revealing and rewarding roads you will ever travel as your level of health increases. So do not be discouraged by temporary setbacks, there are always some of those along the way. Be encouraged instead by the possibility you now hold in your hands of truly recovering and feeling well for perhaps the first time in a long time. Every step you take along this road is a step closer to reclaiming your life and soon you will be able to enjoy the benefits of bathing in the “Fountain of Recovery.”
