• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

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    Why do people with depression like listening to sad music?

    Depressed people find melancholy music beneficial for the same reason why an addict may benefit from admitting to powerlessness within the Twelve Step Program - the stage of acceptance is progress compared to the stage of resistance. Sad songs help depressed people feel their depression rather...
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    My ME is in remission

    Can you be specific on your workouts? Are you deadlifting or squatting? Can you run on a treadmill for ten minutes straight?
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    Something to Ponder

    So this path is always the option of last resort since it is vague and difficult. We prefer connection, community, comfort, and clarity, but the psychological/spiritual route is solitary and there is constant resistance. In my experience, it was only when I was most frustrated and in despair...
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    Something to Ponder

    You guys are speaking my language, so I wanted to add my 2 cents. Both pain and inspiration can knock us into this contemplative mindset that is the doorway through which we access the path of mental/psychological/spiritual development. Like several of you here, I also believe, at an intuitive...
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    What is your personal theory or understanding of ME/CFS?

    The issue is causation. There is a leap, a gap, from observation to a theory of causation. In that gap exists bias, even for the “rational” scientist. The question is who is more credible - someone who consistently warns to be aware of bias or someone who is insistent their theory is the...
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    plan for no cure and hope you're wrong

    I have a feeling some are reading the phrases ‘acceptance’ and ‘surrender’ and thinking those actions can’t possibly be helpful in moving toward a better state of wellbeing. It also seems clear that there are some people using those words and they feel that accepting and surrendering is useful...
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    What is your personal theory or understanding of ME/CFS?

    A valid concern but.. In my view, the anti psych materialist naively ignores or underestimates the difficulty of removing bias and distortion (subjectivity). They believe their judgments to be logical (objective) conclusions that follow empirical data when it reality they are using intuition...
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    After Christmas crash

    We can have a positive attitude even when experiencing depression (although it’s difficult admittedly), so based on the context I am interpreting your question as “how can we feel reassured or secure while having these symptoms”. Fair? What I did at the stage you’re at is I noticed that...
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    Karma and ME/CFS?

    Yes, thank you for balancing out my response. Any idea that stands the test of time should not be too quickly dismissed, and requires a deeper look to see what aspect of being it is attracting. Like I mentioned, partly it is the principle of responsibility, but it seems to have gotten...
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    Karma and ME/CFS?

    Implicit in this idea of karma is a sort of totality of judgment that to me comes from a place of naivety and lack of humility. It’s a low resolution understanding of the nature of reality. For instance, I’m sure everyone can relate to experiences of adversity that we subjectively judged to be...
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    What is your personal theory or understanding of ME/CFS?

    From -a practical perspective: It is a constant signal from the nervous system which forces widespread imbalance among all systems of the body -an evolutionary perspective: It is the surfacing, or overflow, of the epigenetically inherited ‘freeze’ responses which have helped our ancestors...
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    plan for no cure and hope you're wrong

    Above the line is ‘order’ and below it is ‘chaos’. Humans have divided the world between order and chaos for much longer than we have been thinking scientifically. The advantage of abstracting out to the level of order/chaos is that we can see patterns, make connections, and apply wisdom that...
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    My Understanding of CFS/ME and How To Heal

    -We can conceptualize the reason for any action as going from an undesired to a desired state, or where we currently are to where we want to get to. If we better our understanding of both a) where we currently are and b) what we should be aiming at, then we can act more effectively. -Reason...
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    Cognitive issues prior to ME/CFS

    That sounds like a low resolution description of chronic headache, which is a common symptom of CFS. A higher resolution description would be feeling like your head is in a vice. Brain fog. Another common symptom. Exertion/stress will increase symptoms.
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    Depersonalization/Derealization and brain fog

    Derealization is part of the growth process. The appropriate response is to look for inward stability to counter the external chaos. It’s also helpful to set aside alone time to limit the stress.
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    Diagnosing CFS/ME not Black and White

    Also, anyone who has practiced mindfulness and observed their thoughts realizes that at least some of their thoughts are unconscious. You really can't have any credible opinions about psychology if you deny the unconscious. Yeah, if our subconscious was not much more powerful than our...
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    Diagnosing CFS/ME not Black and White

    It goes even deeper than this. The subconscious (mind) actually contains embodied memories of "trauma" that are snapshots of fear responses that are passed on hereditarily. For instance, a child is already afraid of snakes before knowing what a snake even is or having a conceptualization of...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    While I was just in the shower, it occurred to me that only someone who is obsessed with solving ME/CFS will be able to take on the arduous task of investigating their biases. There is so much resistance to the task that unless our desire is stronger than that resistance, there will always be...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    This thread was intended to be about bias, about how much of a problem it is in health, and how we can identify and avoid it. Ignoring bias ensures that we are affected by it. As I'll continue to say, based on my experience of navigating through chronic illness with an unknown cause, there is...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    Allow me the opportunity to establish credibility that I know what I'm talking about: Naviaux's recent study Me on 4/22/2015 Me on 5/9/2015 Naviaux's recent study Me on 7/12/2014 Me on 7/12/2014 Me on 7/12/2014 Me on 8/4/2014 Me on 3/29/2015 From a paper published on 4/2/2015...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    Curiosity and being open to other treatment options doesn't happen while we fully believe that our current treatment is the answer right? After John and Jane read that pacing is the answer and then get their hopes up after experiencing some relief for the first few days, that belief that pacing...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    There is no doubt that reason is something we are using, but is it actually what is guiding us? When John's pain returns and he doubles down on pacing, is that reasonable? I'd say so. How about when he goes through this same cycle for the 3rd time, 4th time, etc? At what point, does...
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    Knowing a treatment option won't work

    John and Jane are unknown to each other but they both begin to have ME/CFS symptoms at the same time. They Google for treatment, find info on pacing, decide that is the answer to the problem, and begin to use it. The pain seems to be lessening but then a few days later it returns worse than...
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    MS coincedence?

    ME/CFS and other chronic illnesses can look like early onset MS. A doctor in that city is probably biased toward giving an MS diagnosis. The article had no current updates on half the group to see if they still had an MS diagnosis. They don't publish that reports when there appears to be a...
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    MS coincedence?

    There's your answer. The doctor(s) in this city are more prone to give out the MS diagnosis.
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    Naviaux et. al.: Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome

    Your assessment that there is more going on is correct. My view is that there are at least two different categories of fatigue. There is the static, flu-like fatigue and then the PEM fatigue that is infrequent but crushing. *Different types of fatigue in that they are derived from a different...
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    Professor Ron Davis's response to Naviaux study, including Q and A with Dr Naviaux

    Last post then I'm done I do understand this to be the case, but I do not believe it is an error. I don't believe that the signaling mechanism is capable of signaling a return to equilibrium while the body is stuck in a hyper state. What it can do, however, is signal for a hypo state. So, it...
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    Professor Ron Davis's response to Naviaux study, including Q and A with Dr Naviaux

    Now that a collective understanding is being reached on the forum that the issue is a signaling problem that is stuck, I want to bring to attention the occurrence of spontaneous remission and relapse that repeats itself in some cases. How are these two things possible? If it is an evolutionary...
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    Professor Ron Davis's response to Naviaux study, including Q and A with Dr Naviaux

    I predict that any condition that involves chronic pain or a chronic stress state with no current identifiable cause (PTSD, fibro, Gulf War Syndrome, chronic infection, POTS, chronic migraines, chronic depression, GAD) is going to show similar metabolic results. BTW, all this stuff about...
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    Naviaux et. al.: Metabolic features of chronic fatigue syndrome

    Let me guess, people who are new to ME symptoms tend to be hypermetabolic, while those with chronic symptoms show up as hypo.