To solve the unique puzzle of our own recovery, we need to experiment on ourselves and build our own evidence base about what works for us and what doesn’t.

To do that, we should try one thing at a time and see if it works, before moving on to the next thing. If we try multiple things at once, we can’t be sure what’s helping us and what isn’t.

To test things properly we need to give them sufficient time to have an effect. For example, if we’re trying out a gluten free diet to see if that’s relevant for us, we need to give it a few months to allow our system to clear and then to adapt to our new diet. If it does have an effect, any energy gains that we might get will only manifest after our system has had chance to clear, which will take time. If we only do the diet for a few days, we won’t get a proper result (and a false negative if gluten was relevant for us) so might miss out on important information that could help us.

It’s deeply frustrating to go slowly like this and it’s natural to want to rush forward to the next thing. Our life is drifting away from us and we want it back as soon as possible. But going slowly and methodically is the quickest and really the only way to get the accurate information we need. It’s also much easier to stay within our baseline if we don’t do too many things at once.

Each experiment is a great step forward. If that gluten free diet worked, that’s great, and if it didn’t, that’s also great because we’ve ruled out a potential cause.

We can’t control whether any individual thing we try is relevant for us, so focus on the process itself instead of the outcome of any individual test. It’s a challenging journey so make sure to praise yourself for the time and energy you’re putting into your recovery. Keep going, you’re on the right path.