Burn Out to Brilliance. Recovery from Chronic Fatigue: Linda Jones (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Linda Jones’ talk titled “Burn Out to Brilliance. Recovery from Chronic Fatigue” at TEDxBirminghamCityUniversity conference.

In this TEDx talk, Linda Jones shares her harrowing journey from the depths of chronic fatigue syndrome to a life of health and fulfillment. She begins by detailing the profound impact the illness had on her life, including the loss of her business, marriage, and sense of self.

Linda describes the physical and emotional toll of chronic fatigue, likening it to the compounded effects of flu, jet lag, and a severe hangover. Despite initial misdiagnoses and the skepticism of medical professionals, she eventually received a proper diagnosis, though was told she had to live with it indefinitely. Refusing to accept this verdict, Linda embarked on a path of self-discovery and healing, employing strategies such as nutrition, pacing, pain management, and mental health support.

Her recovery inspired her to help others, leading to the establishment of the Salus Fatigue Foundation, which aids those facing similar struggles. Through her talk, Linda emphasizes the importance of self-care, early intervention, and the power of resilience in overcoming chronic fatigue.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

In 2001, my whole world changed. I thought I was dying. My life completely shattered into tiny pieces of broken glass. I lost six whole years of my life. I lost my home, I lost my business, I lost my marriage, and I lost me to chronic fatigue syndrome. I was completely burnt out.

At the time, I was in my early thirties, but I actually felt more like I was 130. That’s what it felt like. Every single day, it was like I’d been injected with poison. My body was shutting down. My family and close friends couldn’t see behind my smile what was going on. I called it my world.

The Struggle with Chronic Fatigue

So, what does my world feel like? I want to take you to that place now. Put your hands up here, who’s had flu before? Put your hands up if you’ve had jet lag. Put your hands up, honestly, who’s had a severe hangover to the point you’ll say you’ll never ever drink again, but we all do, don’t we?

Feel what that’s like, to remember it, the headache, the sickness, everything aches in your body. You feel disconnected from life, and all you want to do is go and live and breathe in a dark room, and go to sleep, and knowing after a couple of nights, you’re going to feel better, pop a neurofen, maybe an Alka-Seltzer, and you’re good to go. We’ll time that by 10, and 10 again, and that’s what it’s like to live with chronic fatigue. And also, after having a couple nights sleep, it never ever leaves you, it stays with you.

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Who here is a perfectionist, people pleaser, yes person, doesn’t like saying no, the master, strives to do the best and wants more out of life? Does this sound like you? Could this be you?

Life Before Chronic Fatigue

So, what did my life look like before? I was a very busy person, I lived my life to the full, I used to push myself, if I got a bit of spare time, do you know what I’d do? I’d fill it, and fill it again, and fill it again, this was me, I lived off that adrenaline, loved it, bring it on, give me more, more, more, more, more.

I was a young businesswoman, very successful, driven by targets, lived off chocolate, any chocoholics here? That was me, living off coffee, and these were my coping strategies, to live off that high energy. I’d wake up in the morning, I’d leave the house at 5 am, most mornings, hair, makeup, suit on, heels on, and off I’d go for my day, rearing for that pressure, to keep me running on that adrenaline, knowing that I’d come home into the evening very late, but that was okay, I enjoyed it, I thrived off it.

I then got married, and was blessed with my two children, Eddie and Emily, life felt good, life felt complete to me. And then I started to feel that my tiredness, my normal tiredness, didn’t feel quite right, something was wrong, I became more and more tired, the tiredness became deeper, but I just kept going on, it was fine, I can keep this life going. And guess what, my first warning sign came in, and I chose to ignore it, because I’m the perfectionist, I can keep going, I can keep going on this adrenaline.

Warning Signs and Diagnosis

So we had a family holiday, we went off to Florida, and our due to land, I had this excruciating headache, pain I had never ever experienced in my life, my head felt like it was going to explode. And I felt just very, very unwell, a different type of unwellness. We landed, arrived at the airport, I was delirious, I was completely out of it. Next minute I remember, a team of paramedics around me gave me a big shot of injection, knocked me out for two weeks, end of the holiday.

Returned back home, life became normal again, kept striving, pushing myself, guess what happened next? Second warning sign, and this was a warning sign that could not be ignored this time.

I went to New York for a long weekend with my girlfriend, what do we do in New York two girls, it’s party, party, party time. We had great fun, we shot till we dropped, we did a lot of sightseeing, still kept pushing myself, I arrived back home and I contracted a virus for three months that never, ever left me. I couldn’t even raise my arm to brush my hair. The pain in my joints and muscles was excruciating, the palpitations in my heart, I felt like my heart was going to explode.

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Memory loss, I couldn’t string a sentence together, things were seriously going wrong and getting worse, but I didn’t know what was happening to me.

I would crawl on my hands and knees out of bed to get to the bathroom, to have a shower with the light turned on, we’d be like chins in needles. The final straw was flipping a set of traffic lights to mummy, mummy, mummy, wake up, we’re on green, you’ve got to go. So my life, I’d hide away, nobody could see inside my world and nor did I want them to.

The Road to Recovery

Two years went by, eventually I was told by a consultant, you’ve got depression, you know you’re making this up. I believed that and I thought I was going mad at that point, but I wanted to beat this. I wasn’t going to accept that, so I did a lot of research, eventually I went to see an immunologist and I had a diagnosis of chronic fatigue. And it was great in a funny kind of way, fantastic, we’ve got answers, I know what to do, to then be told the hope that I had was taken away. We don’t know what to do with you, you’re going to have to live with this for the rest of your life.

These were dark, dark days, for a long time I felt isolated, lonely in my world, nobody understood and at that point I was going to take my life. I then had a lightbulb moment after these long dark days and actually Edward and Emily needed me, they needed their mum and these two children gave me my meaning and purpose back in my life. They kept me going.

So I took action, I had a choice, I could create change to my life. I accepted what was happening and thought right, I just need a magic wand, that’s all I need is a magic wand to get my life back. So I became my magic wand, I worked with my positive mind, not be a people pleaser anymore, nurture me, nurture my inner self. And I also worked with my nutrition, I start off every day with a smoothie or a juice and also work with my pacing.

So if I want to do what I want to do throughout that day, I’d halve it and halve it again. I worked with pain management, hot and cold showers and I also worked with movement, I was in so much pain I didn’t want to move so I started with gentle walks and built up to yoga. And it was ok to go and ask for help, it’s ok not to be ok, so I worked with a therapist and a hypnotherapist and this all became my magic wand. Life’s good now, I’m fit, healthy and well, I’m in a really good place, I’m still rebuilding and it’s hard work but I believe in me and you can recover from chronic fatigue.

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Conclusion and Message

So I often tell people it’s like living on the cliff edge, you’re right on that edge of that cliff edge. If you drop over that cliff edge it’s a long way back up, so why do we live our lives on that cliff edge all the time pushing ourselves under so much pressure, we all do it, it’s ok to take a rest, why do we feel guilty to take a rest?

So I was in Wales recently and I was standing underneath this cliff and looked up and thought my God that’s a long way up and boy do I know it because I’ve been there. But actually I started taking those steps up the other side of the cliff and you can do it, you can get there. A pivotal part of my recovery was I was so passionate about helping other people who were going through a similar journey that I was going through.

So I decided to start from a single little thought, I started a charity called Salus Fatigue Foundation and along with a passionate committed team we have helped over 15,000 people start to change their lives and know that they’ve got hope. My other passion is about early intervention prevention, so I go into workplaces and I help people with their strategies, giving them knowledge and education of how to take better care of themselves so they don’t make mistakes that I made and burn out.

So who here is living 24-7 under a lot of pressure and pushing themselves? If that sounds like you, I’m giving you a first warning sign today, you can’t sustain that, take better care of yourself. I’m going to leave you with a message today, what will you change today? Because it starts with you. Thank you.