When the world tells you recovery from ME/CFS or Long Covid is rare, it’s easy to lose hope. But is recovery really that uncommon?

When the symptoms first hit, it’s terrifying – you have no idea what’s happening or why your body has suddenly stopped working the way it used to.

So when a diagnosis of ME/CFS or Long Covid finally comes, it’s almost a relief. At least there’s a name for what you’re going through, something to point to and say, this is why.

But then you search online, only to be met with grim statistics: many people claim only 5% of people recover from ME/CFS and nobody seems to know when it comes to Long Covid.

So, what's the truth? Is it possible to recover from ME/CFS or Long Covid?

Recovery from ME/CFS: the stats

The number you’ll see quoted most often is 5%. That figure comes from a 2005 review that reported a full recovery rate of just 5%, with 39.5% of patients showing some improvement without treatment. It’s a statistic that has been repeated so many times that it has shaped the public belief that recovery is almost impossible.

But the truth is more complex – and more hopeful.

In another study looking at similar outcomes, 37.5% of the patients no longer met either the Oxford or the CDC criteria for CFS after just six months, and 18.3% were considered fully recovered. Then a 2014 review echoed the same trend, estimating recovery rates of 18.6% even without any treatment. Already, that’s a huge leap from the doom-and-gloom 5% number that gets repeated everywhere!

But it gets even more striking.

When people actually received treatment or structured support, the outcomes improved dramatically. In one trial, 69% of the patients no longer met the CDC criteria for CFS after therapy. Another study showed that multi-disciplinary rehabilitation helped around 32% of patients reach a point where they no longer identified as having CFS.

And then there’s one of the most hopeful findings of all: younger people see even higher recovery rates. In a long-term study of children with ME/CFS, a staggering 68% reported recovery after 10 years. Sixty-eight percent – compared to the bleak 5% you always hear about.

The message is clear: recovery is not as rare as you might have been led to believe!

Do people recover from Long Covid?

Because Long Covid is still so new, the research landscape looks very different from ME/CFS. There aren’t decades of long-term studies to draw from, but the early data we have is hopeful. It indicates that long COVID generally has a higher rate of recovery or substantial improvement than ME/CFS. A two-year Swedish follow-up study tracked patients who still had symptoms four months after being hospitalised. By the two-year mark, most had improved, many symptoms had eased, and 16% had fully recovered - already far higher than the often-quoted 5% recovery rate for ME/CFS. There were practical signs of healing too: about half of those on sick leave at four months were back at work two years later.

Across the world, people are also sharing their stories of healing. These are stories that haven’t made it into medical literature yet, simply because the science hasn’t caught up. These lived experiences reinforce a more hopeful picture: recovery from long covid does happen.

Anecdotal evidence that recovery is not rare

This growing body of anecdotal evidence for ME/CFS and Long Covid is as important as the research. It offers real-world insight into what the research hasn’t had time to show us yet – and it sets the stage for what comes next.

About four years ago, Raelan Agle, a US-based YouTuber who had recovered from ME/CFS herself, began interviewing other people who had also found their way back to health. What started as a handful of conversations soon grew into a library of recovery stories, watched by thousands around the world.

And a pattern emerged.

Raelan discovered that most people who recovered from ME/CFS and Long Covid shared a similar theme: they shifted their focus to the nervous system. Many described being stuck in fight-or-flight, their bodies behaving as though danger was always present, even when it wasn’t. By working gently with the stress response, they found their symptoms began to ease, and eventually disappear.

Her channel has since become a beacon of hope, showing that recovery is not a rare exception but something real people are achieving every day. These stories don’t erase the struggle, but they light a path forward for others who are still searching.