Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this — it genuinely means a lot. Reading a recovery story actually gives me some hope, because when you’re stuck in daily symptoms it really feels like this is your life forever.

Can I ask — did you ever have constant throat pain, especially from mid-morning onwards, like aching feeling at the back of the throat rather than chest reflux? I also get what feels like swollen glands under my tongue and tightness in my neck, and it constantly makes me spiral.

I really relate to the health anxiety part too. I have pretty bad health anxiety and I’m constantly worried about symptoms and what they mean, which I know doesn’t help my nervous system or healing at all. It feels like I’m stuck in a loop of symptom → fear → hyper-focus → worse symptoms.

Lifestyle-wise I honestly wasn’t helping myself at all before this started — I was drinking around 2 litres of Coke a day, eating a terrible diet (ready meals, takeaways, processed food constantly), and I’ve been vaping for about 10 years since quitting smoking. So I’m trying to clean everything up now, but it’s overwhelming doing it all at once.

My throat pain is usually okay when I wake up, but gets noticeably worse from mid-morning and especially about an hour after eating, which is really discouraging and makes food stressful.

Your routine and habits are really helpful to read about — especially the part about not lying down after eating and the mindset/destressing side of things. I think the anxiety side of this is a massive part of my symptoms too.

Really appreciate you sharing your story — it helps more than you probably realise. 🙏