Diagnosis Overload: Dr. Etrian Lim’s Recovery From Chronic Symptoms

    Dr. Etrian Lim

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This interview is from the Like Mind, Like Body podcast. You can listen to the full interview below, on iTunes or Google Podcasts.

After 10 years of conflicting diagnoses and mysterious flare-ups, Dr. Etrian Lim had no idea whether she’d ever find relief from the litany of symptoms that plagued her. She found herself having to lie down between seeing patients, going to her own medical appointments almost daily, and occasionally using a wheelchair.

Join us as Dr. Lim shares what’s happened over the past year that led her to 80% symptom reduction and a quality of life she never thought she could find again.

At what point did you discover the whole Curable world?

It actually wasn't long ago. My breakthrough came just last year in August 2020. That was really not long ago. It was one year! I just realized it's my one-year Curable anniversary.

What happened was that my mom was very worried about me, because I was very, very weak. I had to sit in a chair all day. So she put all my symptoms into a Google search and the first word that popped up was fibromyalgia. And then I told her, "Oh mom, I know. Thank you, but my rheumatologist said that I didn't fit the criteria." Actually, this really bothered me. I really wanted to have a diagnosis attached to me, because not having a diagnosis is even more scary. All throughout the years I had no diagnosis.

So I Googled about fibromyalgia hoping to look for some updated criteria that I can fit myself into, and the advertisement for the Curable app popped up. And it was truly life-changing. I thought that was even bigger than my birthday now. It was strange, it was miraculous. I never subscribe to any apps. I never checked out any random ads before, but I saw the amazing reviews and I felt so desperate. And there was a free trial. The free trial really gets to me.

I thought, "Okay, no harm, right?" I was curious and I listened to the education, the brain trainings, the meditations and stuff like that. And it was ridiculous - I got almost 80% better within two weeks, I think. It was too fast to me. I thought maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe for some unexplainable reasons my symptoms got better, by chance.

So I continued with the education, brain training, meditations and podcast. Then, there was this podcast episode with Dr. Alicia Batson, which really hit me, in a positive way. Because first of all, her story resonated with me, and she has a similar background being a medical personnel. Then I found that she got better! She ran a marathon. And all the hope, just fell in to my heart or something like that. After listening to that story, I thought, "Okay, so I have hope. This might not be coincidental. It could just be real. Maybe I really have mind-body syndrome."

Diagnosing myself as having mind-body syndrome, made me really happy and less stressed, because now I could give myself a diagnosis. This is all I wanted over the last 10 years, to give myself an explanation, because none of the other traditional diagnoses could fit me. And then it was all great afterwards. It's almost like I'm giving an advertisement right now, but it's real. This stuff works and I'm just so glad to share my success story. I can finally tell everyone that I'm recovering.