CFS and autism - can I heal?

Hi all,

The short version of my question: do you believe that I can heal from my CFS although I have autism?

Longer version: I'm currently 29 years old. I have CFS since I was 18. I cannot work, if I do work I crash every few months and I'm at home because of my fatigue. I did not enjoy my 20's and didn't have fun in life. Now the big "3" is coming and I really want to change my life and start enjoying it. I'm currently following a trajectory on CFS at the local hospital but it's not helping that much. Since a couple of weeks I found out about the books of John Sarno and I found multiple YouTube Channels. In the beginning I was very enthousiastic and hopefull but suddenly I was overwhelmed with fear and I went in a complete freeze mode for weeks. Now I want to really start working on it again. (I have a wedding coming next week which freaks me out but it also gave me a kick in the butt to start reading everything on TMS again - no worries, I don't expect to be healed in a week ).

Only, this last few months I was also diagnosed with autism. At first it was a big shock for me, but it explains a lot. However, there is this little devil voice in my head saying that I will never heal because fatigue is a part of being autistic, because there are to much stimuli and I will always have troubles processing them. So I'm curious about your views. Do you think/believe that I can heal from my CFS although I have autism?

Thank you in advance and my apologies for the long story. Also my apologies for the grammar mistakes, English is not my native tongue.

 

Of course I do.
You are a human being first. I think you may have some of your own unique issues to work through, unique experiences that shaped you, and the anger and frustration that stems from that.. and the reality that you are now accepting the ways that those experiences make you the unique person you are.
I taught high school to students labeled with autism. Most had anxiety, a few suffered from recurrent pain (headaches), and other symptoms (usually GI), so I’m sure many had TMS.

 

I wonder how many people with autism actually just have severe anxiety and are not autistic, there must be a large minority of people out there, there's no way of proving it's autism for some people and a lot of it depends on who you see

 

Hi MM,
So exciting that you picked up this practice again! I did the same a few weeks ago, and I’m responding not because I have the answers but because I’m going to something of a comparable process right now. I also was diagnosed with autism, a few months ago, and I’m still wrapping my brain around it. I’m also struggling with CFS and it is the main symptom I’m working with.
I have also wondered if the fatigue that comes with autism is coming from tms and if it means it is not “real” in the sense that we shouldn’t respond to it by resting.

for now (and this is with 10 disclaimers that I’m just as well searching myself, and experimenting and I will probably think something else in a week) I’m trying to see what my mind does.

if my mind is jumpy and panicky after social interactions I try to calm it down and to use the words of affirmations technique, or another technique that will calm me down.
so I will shift the focus from my symptoms (tiredness) to my mind, and how at ease I am (and for instance, how well I can focus during meditation).
That’s how I decide to rest or not at the moment.

I’m convinced that my extreme fatigue is definitely tms, but I have no idea how much I can do and handle after this cfs is gone. I’ll just have to see. But I will keep focusing on keeping my brain at ease, relaxed and feeling safe. Because for me, I’m done with the stressed life of trying to keep up with everybody else.

I’m very curious to see how our journey will go, maybe we can help each other out in the process!