Gupta Program

My experience with Ashok Gupta’s Chronic Illness recovery program

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I first started this blog to track my progress on The Gupta Program over 10 years ago. At the time, I didn’t realise that I had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, and as a result I didn’t get much out of the program. The program has since been updated for online delivery and expanded in scope to cover more chronic health conditions. In the light of what I now know about my sleep apnea I recently revisited it, so check out my review of The Gupta Program.

If you have had a polysomnograph (also known as a sleep study) to exclude the possibility that you have obstructive sleep apnea, have been checked thoroughly by your doctor for the myriad of other potential causes of chronic fatigue, sought a second opinion (or ten) and been diagnosed with a chronic health condition like CFS/ME, The Gupta Program may help you recover.

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By Graham Stoney, ago
Gupta program logo with dandelion seeds blowing

Review of The Gupta Program For Chronic Health Conditions

I first came across The Gupta Program (affiliate link) a little over ten years ago when I had been ill with a mysterious flu-like illness that left me severely fatigued for years. I bought the program and started this blog to track my progress. At the time, the program was delivered on DVDs. Last year Ashok and his team released an updated version delivered online and agreed to give me access so I could review it. I’m an affiliate so I earn a commission if you buy the program by following any of the links on this blog but I’m going to be as objective as I can in this review. (more…)

By Graham Stoney, ago

All I Want For Christmas Is A Good Nights Sleep

It’s exactly ten years to the day since I started this blog. Oh my god, that’s a fucking long time to feel like shit every minute of every day. I’m so angry about the whole thing, there aren’t even words to describe it.

Fortunately, there is some hope on the horizon for me, so I channel that anger into action that will hopefully restore my health. It’s also just over 12 months since I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which I now suspect is the cause of my malaise. It turns out that getting a really good nights sleep is incredibly important for your long-term health. The symptoms of CFS and sleep apnea are both like an extreme version of what athletes experience when they overtrain, the common link being that the body isn’t getting sufficient chance to repair itself. (more…)

By Graham Stoney, ago

Insights from Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter Levine

I’ve been watching some of Irene Lyon’s videos about healing the autonomic nervous system, which seems to be at the root of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Irene uses techniques based on Somatic Experiencing and has trained with Peter Levine.

I own Peter’s book Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma, and have read it previously. At the time however, I was so anxious and desperate for a miracle cure that I didn’t really take the time to do all the exercises. Before I fork out for one of Irene’s online courses, I thought it would be worth revisiting the book… but this time taking it more slowly so my nervous system has time to titrate out the trauma; if that is, in fact, the problem.

Here are some quotes from the book that resonated with me on the second reading: (more…)

By Graham Stoney, ago

My Favourite Qi Gong Routines For Recovering From Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

For the past few months I’ve been practising Qi Gong (almost) every morning that I don’t have college. I find the gentle meditative movement helpful and appreciate the light exercise it offers. I recently saw a Facebook post where Ashok recommended it as a good adjunct to The Gupta Programme too.

I generally get up just before sunrise every day and practise down near the beach which has helped shift my sleep pattern to match the sun more closely. I’ve also been switching off lights earlier and avoiding late night TV so that I can fall asleep before 10 PM most nights. I tried a couple of times doing Qi Gong in the evening, but even with Lee Holden’s evening routine I found it hard to sleep afterwards, so I find it better done in the morning.

I find Qi Gong easier to practise than it’s brother Tai Chi, as the movement sequences are simpler. I took a Tai Chi class a couple of years ago, but the routine was long and complex and we only covered a portion of it. I tried learning Tai Chi from YouTube videos, but again it’s tricky to master.

With Qi Gong it’s easier to follow along to a YouTube video. I bought a pair of Sony Wireless Bluetooth headphones so that I can put my iPhone on the ground a couple of metres in front of me and still hear the commentary. One of the reasons I like the videos below is because of the soothing, reassuring commentaries they have.

I have often found strong emotions arising during or just after practising Qi Gong, so remember to take care of your inner child when doing this. Witness the emotions arise and let them go. If they’re particularly strong and/or persistent, find someone to talk the feelings over with.

There are heaps of Qi Gong tutorial videos on YouTube, and you can start with shorter ones and work your way up to longer routines as you feel able. There’s plenty of variety so you don’t ever get bored with the same old routine every day. Get ready to meet your new YouTube friends Lee, Jeff and Marissa!

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By Graham Stoney, ago

What Would I Recommend?

Just got this question via E-mail from a woman who has had ME since 1986 and thought I’d share my answer with you all:

Knowing how hard it is to be disciplined when one is exhausted, would you recommend Gupta, Dynamic NRS or something else?

My short answer is to focus your energy on getting the life that you want, rather than on recovery from ME per-se. That said: (more…)

By Graham Stoney, ago

My Anxious Brain

I’ve just finished reading Joseph LeDoux’s most recent (2015) book Anxious: The Modern Mind in the Age of Anxiety, in an attempt to get a better handle on why I feel so anxious as I recover from CFS, and what I might be able to do about it.

LeDoux is the neuroscientist whose earlier work inspired Ashok Gupta’s amygdala hypothesis for CFS. Another fun fact about him is that he plays music in a band called The Amygdaloids. I’ve noticed that a lot of highly intelligent and creative people love playing music, even if it’s not their main gig in life. My guess is that it exercises the emotional side of the brain that often gets neglected in our overly analytical western society. Writing books about how emotions work in the brain isn’t the same as actually feeling something.

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By Graham Stoney, ago

The Meaning Of Life Experiment

I’ve spent the last month completing Ashok Gupta’s Meaning Of Life Experiment, after being reminded of it on the Community Of Hope For Recovery group on Facebook. It sounds like Ashok is doing a Deepak and expanding his teaching beyond just CFS sufferers to the masses. Here’s what I discovered about the meaning of life…

I really liked the effect of making the commitment to doing a 20 minute meditation every day using the meditations in the iPhone app. It gives you the choice of a 10 or 20 minute guided meditation led by Ashok’s familiar soothing voice. The Soften and Flow meditation sounded particularly familiar… It’s exactly the same as the one in his Amygdala Retraining Program; which must make the references to symptoms sound a bit out of place to people without any physical health condition.

I enjoyed the daily teaching videos too. While the metaphors he uses are new, the videos encapsulate a lot of what I learned during my counselling and life coach training and my own life journey from head to heart. Not bad given that you get this all for free given what I’ve forked out for a zillion courses over the years.

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By Graham Stoney, ago

Why I Highly Recommend Yin Yoga

Just over a month ago I joined my local yoga studio in the hope that it would help reduced the severity of my headaches. So far it seems to be working. At first I tried mostly regular yoga classes, doing about 5 a week. It was too much for me; after a few days I was starting to feel faint during the class, so I backed off and switched to the yin yoga classes instead.

Yin yoga feels much better to me as it is primarily restorative so I don’t end up overdoing it. Rather than moving through a fairly rapid sequence of postures as you do in regular yoga, the yin variant involves holding a supposedly restful pose for about 5 or so minutes and basically meditating there. Then we rest completely for a couple of minutes before the next one.

I say “supposedly restful” because the postures still involve quite a bit of stretching for my inflexible body. After a couple of minutes I start to feel increasingly uncomfortable and the idea is to relax into the discomfort and breathe through it.

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By Graham Stoney, ago

Headaches and EMDR

Headaches

One of the most distressing symptoms of CFS for me has been the headaches. While I’m continuing to recover, I still feel more anxious than I’d like, I feel like I have a mild cold all the time… and I get debilitating headaches.

Oddly enough, playing Pokemon GO every day hasn’t cured the headaches. Who’d have thought. I guess they never promised that in their terms & conditions that I clicked “agree” on without reading.

Back when I worked as a Computer Engineer and spent 8 solid hours every day staring at a screen and push push pushing myself towards the next vitally important deadline, I used to get severe migraine/tension headaches. I would either wake up with them and be wiped out for an entire day, or one would come on during the day and I’d just keep working until the pain got so bad that I had to go to bed, take Panadeine (paracetamol/acetaminophen and codeine) and lie there in agony until I could get to sleep. I knew once I got to sleep, the pain would be gone when I woke up; getting to sleep with my head in agony was the problem.

When the pain was really bad, I’d end up vomiting. I tried taking anti-migraine medication and going to a physiotherapist, but when I didn’t have a bad headache I felt absolutely fine; so I’d go back to push push pushing myself to breaking point again.

Eventually after I burned out at that career, I stopped sitting in front of a computer in a state of tension every day, and the headaches went away. I was incredibly relieved and finally kicked my codeine habit.

Then when I came down with CFS, the headaches came back.

After a recent particularly torturous sleepless night in agony, I decided I’d had enough and headed to my local doctor for some medication. I told him my sob story about CFS, and he organised yet another round of the usual blood tests. I talked about feeling anxious, depressed and the weird tension symptoms I feel in my face, head and neck, which he said sounded like neuralgia. He gave me a sample box of Prestique to try, which is an antidepressant that is supposed to help CFS sufferers recover some of our energy.

Having got this far through CFS without resorting to antidepressants (except for a very brief week or so where I started taking a low dose of something I’ve now forgotten, and then quit out of fear of the side-effects), it didn’t seem to make sense to start pumping chemicals into my brain now that I’m getting better. (more…)

By Graham Stoney, ago