You know, although on your side that was a perfectly innocent question, on mine I really wish you hadn't asked it because in order to answer it I had to mentally go back in time to 5 years ago and some very painful memories came back. I woke up this morning feeling thirsty and needing to go to the BA and I would've gone back to sleep save for the thought of how I was going to answer this popping in my head...(isn't the brain great?  I ended up reliving the “highlights” of these last 5 years and some very painful memories resurfaced which prevented me from going back to sleep and I got up feeling very depressed.  It may in part have to do with the weather, it looks pretty gray outside and that always gets me down all by itself, so maybe I'll get over it soon...

I wrote my reply on a draft and although I tried to summarize it, it got excessively long so I'm forced then to simply go to the point:

How much have you progressed and why you are back on curezone?

Overall, considering all that's gone on in my life the answer to the first part would be “a lot,” and to the 2^nd “due to lack of understanding of my main condition (AF) I lost most or all the progress I made”.  And I'll add it happened repeatedly, I would make great improvement but either unknowingly, pushing myself hard while crossing my fingers, or just due to life circumstances out of my control I would end up stressed out and then suffer what Dr. Lam calls “crashes”, several major ones and a lot of lesser ones. 

I had one bad crash last year, looking back not surprising because I was under a LOT of stress and also neglected my diet.  It spanned from August through the beginning of November, peaking at the end of October with a thyroiditis attack (inflamation, palpitations, and a LONG panic attack).  And now I'm still recovering from my worst crash ever, it started in either February or March and “peaked” on 4/30 with another thyroiditis episode and about 3 horrid weeks of frequent panic attacks, bouts of diarrhea, and a host of other unpleasant symptoms that were constant.  I seriously considered going to the ER 2 or 3x but knowing that they had done nothing for me the last time I went in 2010 I white-knuckled it, then went to a free clinic (very stressful in itself!) only to confirm my thyroid was low and my b/p and liver enzymes were high... again.  The most alarming thing is that the panic attacks started after some lesser stresses that I wouldn't have imagined could trigger such a long awful period of distress as I had (my DSL was cut off and on top, thanks to that I missed a phone call for a job interview).  But I think the way it works is like the proverbial "last drop" that makes water overflow...

I need to emphasize that at least in my case diet played a major role in precipitating my major crashes.  I believe myself to be gluten, or at least wheat, and dairy intolerant.  I've had a pattern of abstaining for months and then indulging again, these things are addictive to me, just like sugar, so even when I was doing it only a few times a week for me it was too much and I had a hard time stopping completely, usually it was the first bad symptoms (fatigue, depression and/or indigestion) that forced me to.  So to anyone who feels or knows this is a problem too I'd say DON'T play with that, sad as it may be, the gluten and casein must go if one wants to get cured.

This is a TOUGH condition for one to navigate by oneself so if you're not getting professional help and can afford it do it.  But if like me you just can't afford it and have no choice but to take things into your own hands, learn EVERYTHING that's out there about AF so you know exactly what you're dealing with and be VERY careful, the wrong supplements or the right ones at the wrong time could set you back, same with anything that can cause our bodies additional stress, taking an initial period of recovery for granted and pushing ourselves to do things we're really not ready for, especially without a "backup" plan to help us along, can cause a new crash and enough of those can usher us into a worse stage of AF.