The Moments That Changed Everything: How Neuroplasticity, Belief Changes and the Freeme App Reflect My Own Recovery from CFS/M. E and Fibromyalgia
- Carole Randell
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
As one of SIRPA's Ambassadors for Fatigue, this is a personal story from my lived experience.
There are chapters of my life I can still feel in my body if I close my eyes - not because the symptoms are still here, but because the emotional imprint of those years was so deep and so consuming that it reshaped the way I understood myself.
CFS/M. E and Fibromyalgia didn’t arrive gently. They arrived like an avalanche — a slow trickle at first, building up to a total collapse. For a long time, I lived in a body that felt like it had turned against me.
This is the story of how I found my way back, and why the work of people like Chris Popham Sykes and tools like the app Freeme feel so important to me now.
The moment I realised something was really wrong
There was a morning — one I’ll never forget — when I sat at work and realised with tears streaming down my face, that I didn’t know how to put a piece of paper into a clear plastic sleeve. I didn’t even have the strength to stand. Not metaphorically — literally.
My legs trembled. My heart raced. My whole body felt like it was made of wet sand.
I remember thinking, “What is happening?” I was scared, confused and had completely shut down in mind and body.
I told myself, “I was fine yesterday”. The reality was, I hadn’t been fine for a long time. I had been coping. Pushing. Surviving.
That morning was the moment my life changed — or at least the version of life that I had been so certain of. For the first time I admitted to myself that something was deeply wrong — and I had no idea how to fix it.
The spiral: fear, monitoring, and the loss of trust
As symptoms intensified, so did my fear. I monitored everything:
Every sensation
Every spike of pain
Every drop in energy
Every moment of dizziness
Every night I couldn’t sleep
I lived in a constant state of scanning — waiting for the next crash, the next flare, the next inexplicable wave of exhaustion.
One of the most painful turning points was the day I realised I no longer trusted my own body. I didn’t trust it to walk me to the kitchen. I didn’t trust it to get me through a conversation. I didn’t trust it to hold me.
That loss of trust was devastating, and it’s something I see mirrored in so many people I now support.
The first shift: “What if nothing is wrong with me?”
The first crack of light came in the most unexpected way.
I was reading something — a line about the nervous system and protection — and it landed in my body like a truth I had always known, but never had words for:
“Your symptoms are not signs of damage. They are signs of protection.”
I remember putting the book down and crying — not because I understood everything, but because for the first time in years, something made sense.
That moment didn’t cure me. But it softened me. It opened a door.
It was the beginning of understanding neuroplasticity — not as a concept, but as a lifeline.
The second shift: the day I stopped fighting my body
There was a day, a quiet, ordinary day, when I realised that fighting my symptoms was making everything worse.
I was lying on the sofa, exhausted, frustrated, terrified. And something inside me whispered:
“What if your body isn’t the enemy?”
It was such a simple question. But it changed everything. I stopped bracing. I stopped catastrophising. I stopped treating every sensation like a threat.
That was the day my nervous system took its first real exhale.
The third shift: when my beliefs started to change
Belief change wasn’t a single moment; it was a series of micro‑shifts:
The first time I walked a little further than I expected
The first time I woke up with slightly more energy
The first time a symptom eased without me doing anything
The first time I realised I wasn’t afraid of a sensation
Each moment rewired something. Each moment taught my brain; “Maybe we’re safe now.”
This is the essence of neuroplasticity — not forcing change but allowing it.
Why Chris Popham Sykes’ recovery journey resonates so deeply
When I later learned about Chris’s recovery, it felt like listening to a parallel story;
The fear. The confusion. The endless searching. The belief that something must be physically wrong. The moment of realisation that the brain was stuck in protection mode. The slow, steady rewiring back to safety.
His journey mirrors so many of ours, and it’s why his app Freeme feels so aligned with the principles that saved my life.
How Freeme reflects what i needed most
When I look back at my hardest years, I can see exactly where Freeme would have changed things for me:
1. I needed someone to explain what was happening in my body
Not in medical jargon. Not in dismissive platitudes. But in a way that made sense.
Freeme does that.
2. I needed daily guidance when my brain was foggy and overwhelmed
On the days when I couldn’t think clearly, Freeme would have given me structure.
3. I needed help interrupting the fear/symptom loop
Fear was the fuel behind so much of my suffering. Freeme helps dismantle that loop gently and consistently.
4. I needed to feel less alone
Freeme offers companionship — the kind I desperately needed.
The final turning point: when my body felt like home again
Recovery wasn’t linear. It wasn’t quick. It wasn’t neat.
But there was a moment — a quiet, almost unremarkable moment — when I realised I had gone an entire day without thinking about symptoms.
I was cooking. Laughing. Moving. Living. And it hit me: “I’m not afraid anymore.”
That was the moment I knew I was well — not because every sensation had disappeared, but because my relationship with my body had transformed.
My nervous system had learned safety again. My brain had rewired. My beliefs had shifted.
My life had expanded.
Why I share this now
As a SIRPA ambassador, I see the same patterns in so many people:
The fear
The confusion
The loss of trust
The belief that they are broken
The longing for clarity and hope
Freeme, neuroplasticity, and belief changes offer a way through — not by forcing the body, but by understanding it.
If you’re still in the thick of it, please hear this:
You are not broken. Your symptoms make sense. Your nervous system is capable of change. Recovery is possible — not through pressure, but through safety, compassion, and gentle rewiring.
You deserve support that honours both your biology and your humanity. And you deserve to know that your body has been trying to protect you all along.
We can help offer this support. Please reach out and book a FREE 30-minute Discovery Call to find out how we can help you understand your body and enable change.
I am also a Practitioner and member of SIRPA, and have contributed my knowledge and expertise to their Online Recovery Program. The program is aimed at helping you recover from chronic pain, empowering you to create results and make a positive difference in your world. For more information and to sign up, please click the button below:
As a therapist specialising in chronic conditions like CFS/M.E./ Long Covid and Fibromyalgia, I cannot recommend the Freeme app highly enough.
It offers a deeply compassionate, mind-body approach that prioritises emotional safety - something so often missing for those who’ve felt dismissed, confused, or stuck in cycles of fatigue, pain, and overwhelm.
I fully support the amazing work that they are doing and you can find out more about it on my site here: https://www.chronicpainreliefonlineclinic.com/freeme-app
If you are interested in trying the app out, please use the button below to sign up, or sign up through the link to my page above. As an affiliate to Freeme, these links will let them know that I sent you, and will help us both out!
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