I have been working with the Gupta Program to varying degrees for a little over 6 months (and doing the full retraining for a little over 2 months). It is hard to tell if it made an impact. I am a little better than I was when I began. However, I have tinkered with other treatments and lifestyle changes since then. I have also been on a gradual upward trajectory since spring of 2020. My instincts tell me that most, if not all, of my improvement lately is due to the fact that I have stayed healthy and avoided setbacks for nearly a year.
Due to not experiencing any significant changes that I can confidently attribute to the Gupta Program and the downsides that I will discuss below, I will be discontinuing the program.
Note- To be clear, I did not give the program to full trial that it recommends, which is doing the full program for a minimum of 6 months. So, my experience is not complete, and therefore my opinion would not be complete either. Also, I did the program back in 2020, and I don’t know how different it is now. Please take these things into consideration as you read my thoughts.
Why quit?
The Gupta Program when done properly is quite the time commitment. It takes over an hour each day. If the program works for you, it is time well spent. But, without seeing noticeable improvement, it was a huge drag for me. I dreaded the retraining aspect. Changing up the language helped me push through at some points, but it quickly came back to being boring and ritualistic. The Gupta Program group says this negative attitude about the retraining indicates “resistance”. I took that to heart to check myself, but I truly think I don’t like it and it isn’t for me.
Thoughts about the program
What I like
- The lifestyle recommendations
- Some specific insights- I can’t get into specifics with this or the lifestyle recommendations out of respect to the program.
- A twice per day meditation practice
What I don’t like
- The main retraining, as I discussed above.
- Some parts of the program delve deeper into psychology-its approach did not resonate with me.
- The Gupta Program affirms that the illness is not psychosomatic, but it would sometimes come off differently in practice. I don’t think everyone would find this to be true, though. We all interpret things, especially nuanced concepts like those in the Gupta Program, differently.
This is just my opinion and personal experience, so take it for what it is worth.
Other thoughts
Prior to doing the Gupta Program, I was consistently using relaxation techniques (ex. meditation, deep breathing, etc.) and cognitive behavioral strategies (see my post on Mind Tricks). I wonder if the program was redundant to the work I had already done. I also wonder if I did not see much benefit because I have already recovered a lot. There could also be user error. Or, it just wasn’t effective for me. Who knows?
Final Thoughts
Although the Gupta Program wasn’t for me, I am glad that I tried it. All along the way in my healing journey I have had hits and misses. I would never find the hits if I didn’t go through a lot of misses. And by a lot, I mean A LOT (you can check out my Pre-Diagnosis Treatments- Part 1 and Pre-Diagnosis Treatments- Part 2 posts for a taste and hopefully a good laugh).
Many people have had success with the Gupta Program and other neural retraining programs and I do not doubt their experiences. The program’s effectiveness, as with all things, depends on the individual.
Have you tried a neural retraining program like the Gupta program? How did it work for you?
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Statements on this site are not meant to be taken as medical advice. These statements reflect my personal experiences having mild-ish post-viral POTS and ME. Due to the wide spectrum of these diseases, comorbidities, and everyone being different, your experiences may be very different than mine.
Note: If you post a comment, this site does NOT have a feature to notify you of responses to your comment. I have not found a good solution for that yet. However, I usually respond to every comment in a timely manner, so be sure to check back.
14 Comments
They are always improving it and upgrading it. An app is coming soon. And if you paid, its only a small fee for new features. It may have changed alot since you did it. Also, you only did it 2 months consistently. I can relate. I know now that my daughter and I gave up too soon on another program because it is so repetitive. But I would not discourage others unless you put in an hour for at least 6 months as recommended.
Hey Lisa, good to know, thanks for sharing that information and your experience with feeling that you gave up too soon with a different program. I don’t intend to discourage others, I just wanted to follow up. I will add some clarification on that to the post. Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
Hey Sam! I have not had success with a specific program. However, I have incorporated aspects of things I learned in the Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia seminar at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester that I have found useful. That’s what I mean when I reference similar work I had done prior to the Gupta Program in the two posts about it. The aspects I have incorporated would be things like: the “mind tricks” post I linked above, meditation and deep breathing, and then being very intentional with lifestyle things such as diet, spending time outdoors, pacing, sleep, exercise, social life, hydration, etc. Those things are not all that I have found useful, to be clear, those are just the things that I would say were touched on at the Mayo seminar.
Gupta Program works if one devotes it 24/7, we, myself including, finding million excuses or simply forget to do it, that is why we don’t get the results. We expect results fast.
Yes, it definitely requires commitment and a long period of consistency. If you would like to share, what improvements have you experienced from the Gupta Program?
I just bought the Annie Hopper dvds. Dynamic neural retraining system. Hoping it helps but yes it’s going to be n hour per day commitment for 6 months
Cool! I hope you have great success with it!
Hi Loretta, did you find the DNRS program helpful? I’m evaluating that and the Gupta program. Thanks for your help!
You never know until you try! At least, you realized it wasn’t for you & decided to forego it rather than continue on just because…and you have an informed opinion. Keep on truck’n!
Thanks Donna!
Love the Michael Scott reference! But it is a good quote. I’ve tried so many things to try and improve my Hashimoto’s, and what I’ve learned is that there is not one thing that works for all people when it comes to chronic illness. And I love that you are aware of that and never discourage anyone from trying something just because it didn’t work for you. 💖
Exactly 🙂