Twelve Years of CFS to Working Full Time and Riding His Bike at 67

Greg's Story: Living With ME/CFS

I live in Overland Park, Kansas, next to Kansas City. I've been married to my wife Debbie for 45 years and we have three grown children.

I woke up one morning at 53 and the world was completely different. I had no idea what happened. Really bad vertigo, brain fog, and if I leaned over at all I'd get so dizzy I could hardly walk. It didn't go away.

I went to my primary, did the MRI, did the blood work, and everything was fine. All she could suggest was an antidepressant, which frustrated me because I wasn't depressed. Then the specialists. Neurologist, rheumatologist. Nothing wrong. One rheumatologist did his little pinch test all over and told me, well, you don't have fibromyalgia, if you did you'd have a real problem. I had a real problem. Nobody could see it.

I gave up my two-acre garden and my shed where I did all my hobby work, and I saved any last bit of energy I had to hold down that job, because I wanted my pension in 2018. I made it. Nothing got better.

Then a neurology specialist told me I had chronic fatigue and there wasn't anything that could be done. She said to sell everything, move to town and rest. And whatever I did, don't do anything that makes symptoms increase, because if you do you'll get worse. That was the worst thing anybody could have told me, because it trained me in a way that's false. When you believe that for years, it's really hard to overcome.

From 2012 to 2020 I didn't know one other person with this. I had no connection to anybody. That was hard. Then I found recovery stories online and got real hope, but I thought hearing that people recover meant it would just happen on its own. Time doesn't heal this. You have to do the right steps.

I found Miguel's video in June 2024 and it laid out three things: it's how you respond to symptoms, adjustment periods are on the way rather than in the way, and when you increase stimulus you can dial back a little, then go again. I joined in November of 2024.

The turning point was in January 2025. Junior was running a call and talking about his activity expansion guide. I was at my table doing a jigsaw puzzle, and I got my phone out and took a picture of it. Every month or so I'd go back to that picture and save it again so it stayed close. In my hardest stretches I'd look at it and it said, right there, you can be extremely uncomfortable as long as it's manageable. And I'd tell myself, I can manage this.

In April I started going in a couple of hours a day at a casual workplace where I knew the owner. I volunteered at first. Those two hours would bring on a big adjustment period. The next day I went anyway. In three or four days those two hours weren't spiking near as much, so I went for three. Then one day I decided to take my lunch and stay until one o'clock, and that extra time was more stimulus again. You do it, you respond well, and after a while it's like my brain went, okay, I guess Greg's fine.

I also worked on the fears in my life. I grew up with some real physical trauma in how I was disciplined, and that made me hypervigilant, never wanting to make a mistake. I'd find myself at work stoking fear because I couldn't read a blueprint right. I had to keep telling myself, this is nothing dangerous, you've got time to learn this. I'm a Christian, and I'd carried a fear about how God saw me since I was very young. Starting in August of 2024 I preached the gospel to myself every day, and after six or eight months I realized I don't think that way anymore. That's pure brain retraining right there.

A few things I'd pass on. Develop a knowing that you're okay even when you don't feel okay. Don't ever tell yourself you did too much, because you didn't do too much. However I felt in the morning, I'd tell myself this is going to be a great day. And a few times a day I'd say, I am so happy that I am calm, confident, brave, healthy and recovered. Even when you don't believe it. It all shows safety to the brain.

The Science Behind ME/CFS Recovery

In ME/CFS, the nervous system gets stuck in a chronic stress response. Research suggests the issue may be functional rather than structural. Your nervous system may be stuck in protection mode, and even normal activities can feel overwhelming. This is what keeps symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and insomnia cycling.

Nervous system retraining uses neuroplasticity, your brain's ability to rewire itself, to help shift out of that stuck state. Instead of managing symptoms, it may address the underlying pattern. That's when real, lasting recovery starts.

Before vs. After: Greg's Recovery

Area	Before Recovery	After Recovery
Daily Life	Between couch bound and house bound	Working more than 40 hours a week at 67
Work	Saving every scrap of energy just to hold his job	Lifting 10 to 50 pound pieces most of the day
Travel	Couldn't manage the two-hour drive to his daughter's	Maui for a 45th anniversary and a week in North Carolina
Activity	Gave up his two-acre garden and his workshop	Back on his bike
Beliefs	Told to rest and avoid anything that increased symptoms	Knows responding well to symptoms is what moves him forward

Where Is Greg Now?

At 67, Greg works more than 40 hours a week in a job where he's lifting 10 to 50 pound pieces most of the day, he's back on his bike, and he and Debbie went to Maui for their 45th wedding anniversary and spent a week in North Carolina with friends. He says he hasn't been this active in 15 years. Greg made this progress through CFS Recovery's recovery system, built on nervous system retraining. This story is one of over 100+ hours of filmed recovery case studies from real people sharing their real experiences. Not scripted. Not staged. Real people, on camera, in their own words.

We've helped people as young as 9 and as old as 86. People who've been dealing with this for 3 months to 50 years. People from bedridden to semi-functional and everywhere in between. Over 3,000 documented client wins across our community.