Cognitive FX does great things for some people. No doubt. But their treatment is too much ‘one size fits all’ and some patients come out worse.
Unfortunately, for me their treatment has worked out totally wrong. I was functioning reasonably well before I went to CFX and hoped to get a final boost in my concussion recovery. Instead, I totally crashed in the month following treatment. All of my concussion symptoms deteriorated. Now, six months after finishing treatment, I am still much worse than before going to CFX. I work 9 hours a week now, where I worked 30 before CFX. I still hope that the damage that CFX has caused is temporary and not permanent. This has been a mentally challenging time.
After CFX, three different specialists have confirmed that I got overtrained by the physical interval-training which CFX gave me as homework. One of them told me that even professional athletes only do this training twice a week. CFX instructed me to do it five times a week. This led to insufficient recovery time between trainings and a build up of stress in my body, with eventually a ‘collapse’ of my autonomic nervous system, which obviously was still in a fragile condition as a result of the concussion.
I know that CFX has been an amazing help for a part of PCS-patients. They definitely do good things for some. However, the figures about improvement they present are not realistic, because these are based on a score which is just a figure on paper. My score improved as well, but in the end feeling better and having less symptoms is what matters. An improvement on paper is of no value, but is great for marketing purposes. Besides, there is no scientific validation of their measurement. They can basically write down any score and no one can check it.
The treatment is too much ‘one size fits all’ with no proper follow up after treatment. This means a risk of not signaling problems in time, as happened with me. My story is not unique and I spoke to quite a lot of others with similar experiences.
Even though CFX is willing to help after treatment, they seem not to be really concerned about cases like mine. I regret this, because I think it is also an opportunity to understand what can go wrong and how they can improve their treatment. It would have been a sign of strength if they would have been more critical towards themselves.
I talked to one of the doctors two months after treatment and instead of admitting that the interval training could be part of the problem, they advised me to have my hormones tested and gave me a long list of tests. Some of these seemed to be unrealistic, as they are related to problems which I never experienced at all (e.g. weight gain, sexual problems, urinary problems, etc). I got the feeling that they ‘wanted to give me something to keep me busy’. I had my hormones tested, just to be sure, and as expected, nothing came out.
Most striking was that the CFX doctor gave me a name of a particular hormone doctor, who turned out to be a naturopath, so not a real doctor. This naturopath treats with pig hormones, which I discussed with a friend of mine who is a proper endocrinologist and he was very surprised and strongly advised against this. I do not know whether this was simply ignorance or not, but it was a further contributor of losing my confidence in CFX. I’m glad I did not pursue this road to avoid even further problems. After this call, I never heard back anymore from CFX. Not a single line of text asking for example whether I had my hormones tested or just how it was going.
I truly hope that they will take feedback like this seriously. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that “If it doesn’t help, it doesn’t hurt” does not apply to CFX. Also, I find it important for people who contemplate CFX to have a fair and realistic view and therefore I have taken time to share my experience.
Wouter