The Welsh/Greek star, 37, shared her devastating news with fans on Instagram and said she hadn’t felt “healthy” for seven years.
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The performer, previously known as Marina and the Diamonds, said her symptoms were triggered by “chronic stress” and included a burning sensation across her body.
She wrote last night: “I have a health/ life update I want to share with you all.
“After 7 years of health issues, I recently got diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ ME.
“I’ve had symptoms like deep fatigue, numbness, tingling, low appetite, brain fog, rashes, insomnia and a feeling of being ‘poisoned’ for so long it’s been hard to remember what healthy feels like.
“My baseline energy has been at 50 – 60% for a long time. Aside from a few periods of remission, the last 7 years have consisted of relying on adrenaline and will power to push me through each day.”
ME is a condition which causes persistent fatigue that can’t be fixed with normal sleep or rest and often means that sufferers can struggle with dizziness, heart palpitations, insomnia and muscle pain.
The syndrome, also known as ME or myalgic encephalomyelitis, is most likely to affect women.
Currently, doctors haven’t been able to identify the exact cause of the condition – but Marina said she has been able to alleviate her symptoms.
She said: “Recovery started 2 months ago after an unusually bad flare up that involved shooting pains and burning sensations all over my hands, legs and back.
“After seeing countless doctors, I started working with a functional medicine practitioner to find the root cause of the symptoms.
“After a lot of reading, I now understand that these symptoms are a result of a hypersensitive nervous system, developed in response to chronic stress.
”My body has felt stuck in ‘fight or flight’ mode and there were many warning signs it gave me before the worst symptoms set in.
“Regardless of the trigger, the key to healing seems to lie in retraining the nervous system to regulate itself again. The happy news is… (!) I am feeling better today than I have in a long time.
“My energy levels are around 65 – 70% most days and the dips I have are shorter.
“Healing is demanding a lot of my energy and attention right now, but the better I feel, the sooner I can get back to my creative life again. I worked for the first time in a while yesterday and it felt so good.”
Marina went on: “I am very grateful for the lessons this experience has given me and I KNOW it’s going to change my life for the better! I feel like I have been given the opportunity to rebuild my life from scratch, exactly how I want it to be.
“I’ve also cultivated a deeper empathy for the millions of people who live silently with chronic illness…
“It’s hard to maintain optimism when the world feels like it’s moving on without you, but hope always exists. Answers always exist. The body wants to heal — and what I’ve learned is that you have to work with it, not against it.”
Potentially a quarter of a million people in the UK who have chronic fatigue syndrome.
Marina battled through her symptoms to release the album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, in 2021.
She split from her partner of five years, Clean Bandit’s Jack Patterson, the same year.
The star topped the album charts here in 2015 with her third album, Froot, which also reached the Top 10 in the US.
In 2019 she ditched the Diamonds in her stage name and began releasing music as Marina.
Marina’s fans shared messages of support beneath her post, and one penned: “Your 60% blows me away, can’t imagine what your 100% will do but I cannot wait.”
Another said: ” Aw I relate so much. Thank you for sharing this with us, I am so happy you are getting better.
“Getting out of fight or flight mode is so hard especially with urgency culture being so engrained in our society… recovery is difficult but 100% worth it.”
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