Amanda Bisk opens up about how she rebuilt her life after CFS crippled her

[Aurator]

Yet another damaging offering from everyone's favourite newspaper.
'Once I got my mind right I was like "this is the next step, let's do this" and that's when my body kinda of followed.'
'Bisk said the only way she got through the darkest times was by working on her mental health, revealing she saw psychologists to help get her back in the right headspace.'

The story is suspiciously thin on detail about the symptoms and how they started. I'm sceptical whether anyone can make such a quick and complete comeback after being "crippled" by CFS.

ETA: You can read more about her story here.
"Never stop making your life what you want it to be." - Amanda Bisk.

 

[Valentijn]

It's always a relief to know that moronic celebrities aren't an entirely American phenomenon

 

[Effi]

this part is what I've been doing from day one:

'Once I got my mind right I was like "this is the next step, let's do this"

yet this is the part that is totally not happening:

and that's when my body kinda of followed.'

What am I missing here? I should call this woman and ask for advice. (one quick google leads me to believe she's going to have me enroll in her magical yoga classes )

 

[Aurator]

According to this article, Bisk was already "slowly starting to recover" in 2011. Since she only got the illness in 2011, what does that tell us about how bad she was?

Oh, and there's this:
"After six months of doctors' appointments to test her kidneys, iron levels, and other possible causes for her exhaustion, she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)...At that point, says Amanda, she could only work out half as much of the time as her teammates, and was seriously frustrated."

We feel your pain, Amanda.

 

[Scarecrow]

I prefer her story in her own words. Bear in mind that she was an elite athlete and that her illness only started in 2011.

Lots of bikini shots in the DM article. Nice one for the lads, so it has some merit.

 

[Strawberry]

I prefer her story in her own words. Bear in mind that she was an elite athlete and that her illness only started in 2011.

Agreed. HER story is very open and honest. The original story quoted is very shallow and deceiving of what she had to give up to heal.

And I state with much envy, it must be nice to be elite enough to be able to quit "working" (her sports) until you heal. I am happy for her with her success. And disgusted with the daily mail article. I wonder if she is even AWARE of the terrible light they painted her in? They make her sound like she suffered depression as the root cause of her fatigue. She went to a psychologist because it was so hard on her having to give up her career to heal!

I hate the media... They spin it to piss us off.

 

[redaxe]

I don't want to sound mean or skeptical or anything but phrases like this don't really fit with ME/CFS and I feel like it just feeds the psychobabble nonsense out there - I'm sure the her intentions are harmless though.

"I realised that the most fundamental element impacting my health was the decisions I was making everyday. Decisions about what to eat, how to move, what to think, everything.

The more I learnt, the better decisions I made each day. And I began to see a change."

Although maybe I'm being too cynical. It's fairly well accepted that the younger and fitter you are the much better chances of recovery there are. It's just that there are many of us here who have tried the whole 'being positive' thing and it doesn't really cut it. You can put your mind in the right place but that doesn't guarantee the body will follow.

That said for post-viral fatigue or forms of overtraining or burnout it is probably helpful.

 

[Effi]

"I realised that the most fundamental element impacting my health was the decisions I was making everyday. Decisions about what to eat, how to move, what to think, everything.
The more I learnt, the better decisions I made each day. And I began to see a change."

There's a lot these stories around, about how when you change your mindset, you clean up your diet, and you start doing yoga or some sort of gentle exercising you slowly get better and start having this totally different, amazing life. I can imagine this works for people who are really tired from working hard in a job they hate (this is what they say), or after having a really bad viral infection or something. And it's great that sometimes your health really is in your own hands and you can change the course of your life for the better.

But I think many, or most, of us have tried these things. I was on a super clean diet, had a very positive mindset, and did body conscious gentle exercise, but I kept slipping down. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I desperately tried to grab hold of whatever came along on my way downhill. But nothing worked. And that's why this kind of story always strikes a nerve in me. It's not always in our own hands. Sometimes we get sick and there is nothing we can do about it.

 

[Mij]

If positive mindset, healthy diet and yoga didn't prevent from becoming ill in the first place, how is it supposed to make me better?

 

[leela]

Darn, twelve years plus of being in the wrong "headspace."
Silly me.

 

[redaxe]

If positive mindset, healthy diet and yoga didn't prevent from becoming ill in the first place, how is it supposed to make me better?

Well being young and healthy doesn't always give you the most protection from disease. Take the Spanish flu for instance...

Less well known is the plague of Justinian in the mid 6th century that arguably was the biggest factor in ending Roman hegemony over the Mediterranean and ending Justinian's attempts to reunify the old Roman Empire.

I find this this account interesting.

“During that year at the beginning of spring a second outbreak of plague swept the capital, destroying a vast number of people. From the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Justinian when the plague first spread to our part of the world it had never really stopped, but had simply moved from one place to another, giving in this way something of a respite to those who had survived its ravages. It now returned to Constantinople almost as though it [had] been cheated on the first occasion into a needlessly hasty departure. People died in great numbers as though seized by a violent and sudden attack of apoplexy. Those who stood up to the disease longest barely lasted five days.”[15] He goes on to describe the people that were the most vulnerable to the disease, “People of all ages were struck down indiscriminately, but the heaviest toll was among the young and vigorous and especially among the men...”

Curiously too Justinian took months too recover from the plague and was well known to be weaker and frequently sick for the rest of his life. So there is nothing new about post-infectious disease syndrome either now or 1500 years ago.


Sorry for going offtopic here but epidemiology is an interesting subject.

 

[Snow Leopard]

So they accepted all the sexist comments about her body, but didn't accept my comment about her experience being atypical and a reference to the IOM report.

Sad.

 

[leela]

So they accepted all the sexist comments about her body, but didn't accept my comment about her experience being atypical and a reference to the IOM report.

Sad.

That's just awful, @Snow Leopard. I can't even "like" your post because totally shame on them!