Asking advice after a bit of a dip in baseline and symptoms. It's widely appreciated that CFS is pretty stubborn to get rid of completley so that's what I'm asking, how do i go from my position now to fully fit.
Some context Ive had CFS for around 3 years (I am 22) with around the spring of 2025 being the worst of it with a pretty rough summer, I was mostly mild through 2023 and 2024. I've been on the up since around august after being severe house/bed bound from april through to august kind of time when I started all the nervous system work and taking recovery seriously.
So it's been around 9 months of steady gains it's been slow going but I've reached the position where most CFS people would see me as pretty much recovered or mild but healthy people would see me as still pretty ill. I reached a peak baseline in April where I was hiking with my parents and our dogs around 1.5 to 2 hours, six days a week. I was doing gym work at home and was just starting to go to a commercial gym on occasion. My sleep has essentially resolved and is better than it's been at any point of CFS, I'm not able to work but been increasing cognitive load at home doing stuff like sewing projects, cooking, writing about CFS, reading books etc; I can take day trips, go for a meal with friends, drive, all this kind of stuff I could not do before january. Things were in a good place despite still having a lot of symptoms mainly brain fog, derealisation and low motivation.
However, non-linear progress, as always, hits when you are up with a few weeks of downswing and feels like I'm back 3 months ago. A mix of factors such as an minor unrelated medical issue, family visiting, argument with parents, managing correspondence with my university i'm supposed to return to in 5 months etc all on top of probably already pushing it a bit too much has had me struggling with things i've been taking for granted like the walks, driving, chores etc.
So from here what would your advice be, not just of my circumstances but dealing with this stubborn stage. I've taken some time to get back to basics and appreciate that load probably accumulated a bit. It would be interesting to hear your stories how you went from this middle ground into full recovery, any help appreciated !