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Did anything stress you out before you got me/Cfs?

C

Cfs2019

Messages
63
Following on from the therapy thread

Obv I had a bad experience with them so I'm not promoting them but just in case they're right did anyone have some sort of emotional trigger?

I kind of did so I thought at first maybe they had a point, I was in my teens and my parents got divorced but knowing that stressed me out didn't really get me anywhere at all

Was there an emotional trigger for anyone else on here?
 
Horizon

Horizon

Senior Member
Messages
239
I was under heavy stress and always am but I think its physical trauma to the body and exacerbated by stress.
 
A

atleje

Messages
1
No, I have never been stressed before or after I got ME. Everything I have experienced after getting sick in 2005
after a severe attack of mono has never stressed me... Pissed off? Yes. But never stressed...
 
rosie26

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
I've had lots of stress most of my life. But I believe an infection at 20 caused my ME and has caused me to be more sensitive to the stress response because of the dysregulations the infection triggered.
 
D

daisybell

Senior Member
Messages
1,613
Location
New Zealand
I think that 'finding an emotional trigger' is simply a reflection of human nature - we try to make sense of things that are in fact random, or not under our control. So we look back after the event to try and find some way of explaining what happened.. I don't believe the 'emotional trigger' theory at all.

We all have different things that stress us to different levels at different times of our lives. People still believe that stress causes ulcers - there's just no evidence that this is the case, whereas there's good evidence that H Pylori does.

I believe that ME/CFS is something that we are genetically susceptible to. Perhaps it's even simmering in the background long before we feel ill, but our system holds it in check. Then something else happens to affect our physical function, e.g. an infection and the ME intensifies, taking advantage of the rocking of our homeostasis and tipping it into a pattern of impaired function that our system can't correct. Given the two peaks in age of onset, there is obviously something about the way we function that makes us more susceptible at certain times of our lives.

Not our fault. Not some sign of emotional weakness or of a failure to deal with issues. A weird and complicated illness.
 
rosie26

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
daisybell said:
I believe that ME/CFS is something that we are genetically susceptible to. Perhaps it's even simmering in the background long before we feel ill, but our system holds it in check. Then something else happens to affect our physical function, e.g. an infection and the ME intensifies, taking advantage of the rocking of our homeostasis and tipping it into a pattern of impaired function that our system can't correct. Given the two peaks in age of onset, there is obviously something about the way we function that makes us more susceptible at certain times of our lives.
Click to expand...
I think your probably spot on here.

Something I have been thinking a lot of the last couple of years is that I think this particular gene has been giving me problems even before the infection that really changed things. I say that because I had some cognitive problems as a child and struggled all through my school years. Was picked on by teachers for it too. I'm really interested to learn in the future the impact overall of the affect this 'possible' gene has had on me all my life.
 
JaimeS

JaimeS

Senior Member
Messages
3,408
Location
Silicon Valley, CA
I find the argument immaterial and here's why.

Who reaches the median age of onset for ME and has not had a majorly stressful life event? Who has reached age 30 and not lost a job, lost a family member, experienced a divorce, been in a car accident? @daisybell is right -- when we search for "how could I have gotten here?" we end up with something called 'recall bias' -- that is, the attempt to recall something bad that might have happened to get us into this mess.

Contrast: if you ask a super-healthy person if they've experienced trauma, they have had less reason to reflect on it; they might say 'no' off the bat, but come up with the same number of experiences of trauma, if you press them.

FWIW I know that an emotionally traumatic event is tough on the body, and long-term stressors may be worse. However, everyone I know my age has been exposed to at least one traumatic event and at least one period of 'long term' stress in their lives. Why am I sick and they aren't?

If I had to lay bets, I'd say that there is an inherent weakness in our immune systems that is damaged by physical stressors such as a terrible infection or a physical injury -- and possibly by a traumatic event or long-term stress as well.

For my part, it was a physical injury that tipped me over, but I don't disbelieve those who say that emotional stress played a major role in their onset. Did it cause their illness?

Not a chance.

-J
 
C

Cfs2019

Messages
63
belize44 said:
The first forty years of my life was almost non-stop stress, so it doesn't surprise me that I am ill!
Click to expand...

I think the theory would be that you reconnect to the stress and release it although I'm not sure how you do that, they started to confuse me with it after that

The first time I went my symptoms lifted, which is quite a nice feeling tbh, it's almost like your brain switches off, I was gonna say switches on but you notice it slow down completely , I think they call it the 'chatterbox' I found it impossible to keep it that way though

I did kind of switch off for a few months before I got Ill, sometimes the stress for me would be too much and id do stuff like smoke cannabis to give me a relief from it but I've quit stuff like that now and I'm able to reconnect emotionally but even so it doesn't seem to get me anywhere

One danger I found is if you reconnect emotionally, rather than need to stay in bed all the time you can be prone to stuff like addictions, plus you can make a lot of bad decisions, I've had about 30 different jobs since doing these therapies, I kind of think I'd have betters better not bothering
 
V

Valentijn

Senior Member
Messages
15,786
No stress for me. Things were going very well, I was finally living with my fiance in the Netherlands, doing great in Dutch classes, and living in our own nice little house in a great neighborhood.

I've never had much stress in my life. Mostly just doing my best and not worrying about it not being good enough, or things going wrong somehow. I'm pretty low-key.

I did have a nasty infection (flu?) right before ME started. Nothing particularly noteworthy, except maybe some joint inflammation and rib pain (costochondritis).
 
C

Cfs2019

Messages
63
What they say is it's the emotional stress that makes the flu or virus linger that the body struggles to recover from if you didn't have this the virus would pass like normal within a few weeks
 
U

user9876

Senior Member
Messages
4,556
JaimeS said:
I find the argument immaterial and here's why.

Who reaches the median age of onset for ME and has not had a majorly stressful life event? Who has reached age 30 and not lost a job, lost a family member, experienced a divorce, been in a car accident? @daisybell is right -- when we search for "how could I have gotten here?" we end up with something called 'recall bias' -- that is, the attempt to recall something bad that might have happened to get us into this mess.

Contrast: if you ask a super-healthy person if they've experienced trauma, they have had less reason to reflect on it; they might say 'no' off the bat, but come up with the same number of experiences of trauma, if you press them.

FWIW I know that an emotionally traumatic event is tough on the body, and long-term stressors may be worse. However, everyone I know my age has been exposed to at least one traumatic event and at least one period of 'long term' stress in their lives. Why am I sick and they aren't?

If I had to lay bets, I'd say that there is an inherent weakness in our immune systems that is damaged by physical stressors such as a terrible infection or a physical injury -- and possibly by a traumatic event or long-term stress as well.

For my part, it was a physical injury that tipped me over, but I don't disbelieve those who say that emotional stress played a major role in their onset. Did it cause their illness?

Not a chance.

-J
Click to expand...

If something common appears to be the trigger such as a virus, a physical injury or stress I think we need to ask why that particular event rather than a previous one. What made that event significant. If ME is autoimmune it could be that the autoantibody was there before but it is only significant when there are shocks to the body and certain cycles disrupted.
 
D

daisybell

Senior Member
Messages
1,613
Location
New Zealand
l2009 said:
What they say is it's the emotional stress that makes the flu or virus linger that the body struggles to recover from if you didn't have this the virus would pass like normal within a few weeks
Click to expand...
There's absolutely zero evidence for that statement, and lots of reasons to disbelieve it. Firstly, it's very rare to actually know what the virus is, and secondly, every person's immune system is going to react a bit differently. Ebola kills some people and not others - you don't hear stories about how it was emotional stress that was the factor at play.

That is just people who want you to fall for the rubbish they spout so they can get you to spend money on their product. Making money from 'fixing' your problem thinking is all they care about.
 
Rick Sanchez

Rick Sanchez

Messages
84
I basically couldn't have asked for a much better life before CFS hit.

The only time I was ever stressed was after CFS hit and I was trying to get top marks in law while dealing with CFS, needless to say, it did not end well. But that was 4 years after I had initially been hit by CFS.
 
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