Have you significantly used or abused any drugs in the past before the onset of symptoms?

[GypsyGirl]

@manna - I have some questions about ayahuasca and wanted to send you a pm, but your profile (and therefore, its pm feature) isn't accessible because of your privacy settings. If you're willing to receive a pm from me, please feel free to pm me or add as friend; I'd love to speak with you further. Thanks!

 

[Snookum96]

I watched a documentary by Lisa Ling on Ayahuasca retreats in Peru a while back. Anyone considering going there please be careful. As with any other industry there are a lot of scammers who just want to take our money.

I considered it briefly for depression years ago, but as I am in recovery though it was a bad idea.

I abused everything from age 13 to 23. Alcohol, weed, cocaine, heroine (briefly), LSD, mushrooms, opiates (briefly) and pretty much everything else.

I still smoke.

I have been sober since then except for a one week relapse just under four years ago. I was sober when I feel ill.

I know this thread is old but since we are all aware of what it feels like to be discriminated against by people who don't believe in this illness, let's remember that alcoholism and addiction are illnesses as well. I'm not saying this because of anything that was written here, but because people sometimes forget and I know everyone here knows what it feels like to be judged.

 

[MeSci]

LSD...Magic mushrooms...amphetamines (not methamphetamine)

(Apologies to anyone who thought I was a nice girl...)

Me too! I'm sure you are a nice girl. Drugs don't (necessarily) make people nasty! Amphetamines and coke can.

 

[Grigor]

I used lots of stuff. XTC , Coke , weed, LSD, mushrooms, ,speed, alcohol, tabacco,
Not on a daily basis. But I used them

Something interesting though is that when I got ill I stopped using it all together. But then 2 years into the illness I started to feel a bit better . And used half an XTC again. I never felt normal BUT...I was up all night, but most interesting part of it all is that I did not have PEM the next days . It was amazing . So I did use XTC on occasion just to let go a bit .
I mean so weird . When sober I will go and do something easy for half an hour . And would be wasted for the next 3, 4 days.
One night of XTC and no PEM.
Yes I was tired from the lack of sleep but that's it .
Start to wonder if it has something to do with the Vagus Nerve.

Anyways at the moment I really can't use anything. And not sure if I will again. But really they should investigate this .

 

[MeSci]

I abused everything from age 13 to 23. Alcohol, weed, cocaine, heroine (briefly), LSD, mushrooms, opiates (briefly) and pretty much everything else.

I don't think I abused any drugs - I treated them nicely!

 

[Snookum96]

I don't think I abused any drugs - I treated them nicely!

Ahahahahaha that made me laugh out loud!

 

[L'engle]

No, just a bit of drinking and smoking as a teenager. Much less than most of the other people in my town. Also ate well and exercised. Not saying this to sound superior, just stating facts about my lifestyle. If it was strongly correlated I think I would be healthier than most people, not sicker.

 

[AndyPandy]

No drugs, no smoking, some alcohol, but not much. A healthy lifestyle.

No judgment of anyone's choices. Just sharing to show that it didn't make any difference to developing severe ME/CFS in my case.

 

[Snookum96]

No drugs, no smoking, some alcohol, but not much. A healthy lifestyle.

No judgment of anyone's choices. Just sharing to show that it didn't make any difference to developing severe ME/CFS in my case.

It's interesting to read this. My mom is a breast cancer survivor who also was very healthy. She was saying that in the case of breast cancer the newest research is showing that genes and luck may the biggest factors (of course a healthy lifestyle helps). Perhaps we are seeing the same thing here.

 

[SOC]

No drugs, no smoking, some alcohol, but not much. A healthy lifestyle.

No judgment of anyone's choices. Just sharing to show that it didn't make any difference to developing severe ME/CFS in my case.

Similar here. No drugs, no smoking, no alcohol before 25 yo and less than one beer/wine per year since. No vaccines as a child and no medicinal drugs (prescribed or OTC) before age 21, and not much after (pre-ME). I was a gymnast as a teen and had a healthy lifestyle. My daughter had vaccines, but so far no drugs, smoking, or alcohol. We both have ME. I have been bedbound with ME, and she was effectively housebound for a period.

So I agree with AndyPandy, that avoiding drugs/smoking/alcohol does not seem to make a difference to developing severe ME. I doubt ME has anything to do with choices we made. It just happened to us through genetics, rotten luck, or both.

 

[Snowdrop]

I've never taken illicit drugs, smoked and I don't tolerate alcohol.
I agree that genetics and bad luck are likely the biggest culprits in getting ME. But I think it's possible for drugs to contribute.

In my case drugs weren't interesting to me because all through my childhood I had to take phenobarbital and dilantin for epilepsy.
It made me want to be free of drugs and I think they may have contributed to creating a personal biochemistry that left me vulnerable to this disease. But I don't think they caused the disease.

 

[Kenjie]

Aside previous use of over the counter herbal remedies from local chemist for relaxation and sleep which I have stopped in last few months... I am squeaky clean... No drugs no cigs and no alcohol ... No regrets.

 

[daisybell]

I got exposed to the waste products of methamphetamine production in the early years of becoming ill (thanks to a neighbour disposing of her boyfriend's production waste down the outside drains).... I didn't know what was going on but at that time had huge brain fog. After the professional decontamination of next door, I woke up a few days later and felt significantly improved... However, my health then continued to decline again.
I can't prove any link but I believe that the chemicals did me significant harm.

 

[Dufresne]

I abused everything from age 13 to 23. Alcohol, weed, cocaine, heroine (briefly), LSD, mushrooms, opiates (briefly) and pretty much everything else.

I still smoke.

I have been sober since then except for a one week relapse just under four years ago.

@Snookum96, I've always wondered what kind of self-destructive hell-raisers were lurking behind those kitten avatars.

Congrats on the sobriety. The combination of addiction and this disease almost wasted me.

 

[MeSci]

My own main reason for using drugs (legal and illegal) was that I suffered from anxiety and lack of confidence, with complex causes. (E.g. difficult, stressful and loveless childhood, plus likely too much carbohydrate.) It was also the late 60s/early 70s, when drugs were 'cool' and I wanted to belong to those groups who used them. Neurologically it seems likely that those feeling the need for drugs and other stress-relieving activities such as self-harming (and I did that from adolescence to young adulthood) have issues such as abnormal levels of neurotransmitters and/or their respective receptors and/or abnormal synaptic gaps. (It's also changes in these that produce addiction, I believe.)

With drugs I could be confident - the 'life and soul of the party' - a vivacious, crazy, entertaining person whom no one seemed to suspect lacked confidence. Drugs also made me happy and relaxed. Now a dietary change has reduced the anxiety, and I am more confident, so I don't need much in the way of mind-altering drugs. I don't have that desperate need to prove myself. I also don't have the energy or the health to deal with them or go out socialising anyway.

 

[Wayne]

I haven't read much on this thread, but I will mention I met a man many years ago who was severely ill with ME/CFS. He said he was healthy until he snorted some cocaine. He only did it once, but he'd been sick ever since. His experience would seem to give credence to the brain dysfunction aspect of ME/CFS.

 

[Snookum96]

@Snookum96, I've always wondered what kind of self-destructive hell-raisers were lurking behind those kitten avatars.

Congrats on the sobriety. The combination of addiction and this disease almost wasted me.

Thank So!
You never know what is hiding behind the kitty! Lol I was cackling when I read that!

 

[AaroninOregon]

Only alcohol...oh how I miss alcohol.

 

[Dufresne]

Incidentally I know about a hundred people in recovery from alcoholism in my neck of the woods; three of whom have ME/CFS, and another five have fibro. I don't know if there's anything to this, but it fits with the way I see this disease: glutamate/GABA imbalance, kindling, possible limbic/amygdala/anterior cingulate gyrus, etc dysfunction. I know that recovering alcoholics tend to be wound tight, just like the "wired but tired" subset. I believe glutamate factors greatly in these conditions.

Dr Amen has shown SPECT abnormalities in the ACG of children of alcoholic parents, and I think this may be the inherited defect that leads to alcoholism running in families. He calls this type 3 ADD.

http://www.adhd-health.com/philosophy/adhd-6types-type3-5.php

 

[Marco]

Incidentally I know about a hundred people in recovery from alcoholism in my neck of the woods; three of whom have ME/CFS, and another five have fibro. I don't know if there's anything to this, but it fits with the way I see this disease: glutamate/GABA imbalance, kindling, possible limbic/amygdala/anterior cingulate gyrus, etc dysfunction. I know that recovering alcoholics tend to be wound tight, just like the "wired but tired" subset. I believe glutamate factors greatly in these conditions.

My thoughts too :

http://www.cortjohnson.org/blog/201...fs-puzzle-the-neuroinflammatory-series-pt-ii/