--how representative I am, given the acute onset body-wide burning I experienced (the theory is still that this resulted from an autoimmune molecular mimicry process, though we hve no real "smoking gun" type of proof), but I did go through a very intense period of symptoms that came on very fast, "plateaued" around three-six months, and then VERY slowly began to recede. Not completely, mind you--I have symptoms from time to time (flares), and my overall background symptoms are still around, and are especially prone to compressive effects (if I lean on an elbow wrong I can get funny stuff going on for days), but my overall symptoms are much reduced, to the point that I am no longer on any meds.

This is five and three quarters years in--my neuropathy started on April 12, 2003, around 11AM. It was that quick.

It's very possible my situation was monophasic, leaving residual damage, but not progressive beyond the initial global attack. This doesn't seem to be the typical profile for most neuropathy suffferers, though. More report that the condition plateaus or slowly progresses over the years, though this is hardly inevitable--if an underlying cause is found and treated, the process can be arrested or even reversed, which several people here have reported. (Nerves take an incredibly long time to heal, though--and you can really get some bizzaro dysesthetic sensations during the process, as the nerve growth cones fight through tissue trying to reconnect to their efferents, which the brain can interpret as pain, tingling, electricity, presence of things not actually there . . .)

I do think almost all of us can benefit from a supplement regimen to promote nerve healing--B-vitamins, D, lipoic acid, essential fatty acids, acetyl-l-carnitine, conenzyme Q10, and the like. Not everything works for everyone, and there's a lot of trial and error (and some expense) involved. But setting up an environment that promotes metabolic efficiency and eliminates/minimizes neuroexcitatory/neurotoxic influences (these include MSG and other glutamates, sugar, alcohol, gluten/caesin for some people) is not a bad idea anyway, from standpoints other than the neurologic.