For two years, Fabian’s life took place in one room, in his bed – with an eye mask and earplugs to block out all stimuli as much as possible. “I couldn’t speak a word for half a year, I couldn’t look at my cell phone,” says the 34-year-old in the ZDF report “37°Life: Young, sick, retired“.

“I couldn’t tolerate any light, I couldn’t tolerate any noise. In the end you lie in bed for 24 hours, completely isolated, in the dark. For me it always felt like being buried alive,” he remembers. Since contracting COVID in 2022, he has suffered from the neuroimmunological disease ME/CFS.

Doctors often know little about the “chronically unexplored and undertreated disease,” which affects an estimated 650,000 people in Germany. Around 60 percent of them are unable to work. For Fabian, a return to the professional world was also unthinkable for a long time. He was in his early 30s and retired. But isolated in the darkness of his room, he still didn’t want to give up hope.

Fabian’s father found an online program for ME/CFS sufferers. The 34-year-old emphasizes that this is not training like healthy people might know, but rather adapted exercises. It took him a year to make progress with it. “It was the absolute biggest highlight for me when I was able to go to the toilet and back independently for the first time,” he looks back. After two years it is finally back in the open air for the first time.

Lena (30): “I haven’t been at zero pain for years”

Lena is 30 years old and also retired. For the former surgical assistant, the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2022 was a blow. But even worse, she says in the ZDF interview, was the day she had to clear out her locker in the hospital. On TikTok, where she had already built up a community, she tearfully told her followers: “I’m just pissing the whole time, I have no strength at all.” And further: “I’ve just felt alone for weeks.”

Lena is too sick to retrain and therefore receives the full disability pension: around 1,700 euros per month, limited to three years. She “really wants to go back to work.” When she was no longer allowed to do that, she “just felt useless and, above all, superfluous,” the 30-year-old remembers. At the same time, the young woman’s body is giving her trouble: “I haven’t been at zero pain for years.”

But giving up is not an option for Lena: she goes for a walk with her dog, she continues to go dancing, even if she often has to fight against her body. She also continues her TikTok account where she exchanges ideas with other affected people, among other things. The 30-year-old also gets understanding from her mother, who is also taking early retirement due to a stroke.

“I’m actually relatively happy again”

“I definitely didn’t feel like a pensioner today – and that’s a good thing,” smiles Lena after a performance with her dance group. And a change in medication also gives her hope of being able to enter the professional world again. She even has a job lined up at a local sports outfitter. Until yours pension ends in a few months, she now wants to test whether she can work or whether she has to extend her pension.

Fabian has already taken the first step back: he is doing a work trial for six months and is still entitled to 50 percent of his salary Disability pension. At the end of this period, the political science graduate wants to return to his job, even if a relapse is still possible. “I’m actually relatively happy again,” reflects the 34-year-old.

At the same time, Fabian wants to continue to raise awareness about his illness and shares his small and large successes on social media. In doing so, he also gives hope to other sufferers: “Every time Fabian said something new about what he can now do again, Fenia is happy,” says the mother of a young ME/CFS patient: “These are glimpses of her future.”

“37°Life: Young, Sick, Retired” can be seen on Sunday, March 15th at 9:03 a.m. on ZDF and now in the media library.