From feeling confused and, not understanding what was happening to their bodies, they eventually began to take charge of everyday life and thereby reconnected with their present social lives and created positive expectations for the future. Such a process has been described as one of several management strategies in the recovery process understood as a personal healing process [32,39,40]. By finding alternative, meaningful activities and new values, the present participants connected with life in new ways and recreated valued new ways of living.
The process of transition of social identity [34] that the adolescents underwent can be understood in the light of the recovery as a personal healing process [32,41,42]. Recovering from illness, as our participants reported, can be described as a process [41] intertwined with a transition from childhood to adulthood. This implies that illness has made this transition into a particular trajectory that leads to a change in their valued selves and lives and thereby becoming another person than they likely would have become without being ill. Illness, and especially a chronic illness such as CFS/ME, is complex and can have a profound impact on everyday life. To recover indeed indicates a complex personal process for those who are ill. It comprises building bridges between the body, social life and self, creating a sense of coherence in a meaningful manner and a new understanding of the self and what is found valuable in occupational life.
