Background: The condition known as chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is poorly understood. Simplified medical models tend to neglect the complexity of illness, contributing to a terrain of uncertainty, dilemmas and predicaments. However, despite pessimistic pictures of no cure and poor prognosis, some patients recover.
Purpose: This study's purpose is to provide insight into people's experiences of suffering and recovery from very severe CFS/ME and illuminate understanding of how and why changes became possible.
Methods: Fourteen former patients were interviewed about their experiences of returning to health. A narrative analysis was undertaken to explore participants' experiences and understandings. We present the result through one participant's story.
Results: The analysis yielded a common plotline with a distinct turning point. Participants went through a profound narrative shift, change in mindset and subsequent long-time work to actively pursue their own healing. Their narrative understandings of being helpless victims of disease were replaced by a more complex view of causality and illness and a new sense of self-agency developed.
Discussion: We discuss the illness narratives in relation to the disease model and its shortcomings, the different voices dominating the stories at different times in a clinically, conceptually, and emotionally challenging area.
Keywords: contested diagnose; illness narratives; narrative analysis; persistent physical symptoms; personal experiences; qualitative interviews; recovery process; very severe CFS/ME.