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

[OhShoot]

I had an enormously stressful period AFTER the onset of my ME/Lyme, from trying to deal with the effects of the illness while still pulling good grades in a rigorous high school program.

But even then, a lot of the severity of my mental issues was directly from the Lyme going neurological!

Stress can definitely weaken your body's defenses, but it can be a hit-and-run. There is no use trying to counsel a person for an event that they don't even register anymore.

 

[Silence]

I was in nursing school, working full time, and taking care of my brother who had just been diagnosed with a mysterious and debilatating illness, which we would later find out was cfs/ me. approx 1 year later I too came down with cfs. The emotional and physical stress were really unmanagable for me at that point.

I beleieve that this illness, along with some meditative practices, has made me realize that what i thought was a seemingly normal life with some day to day stress and introvertedness, was actually taking its toll on my nervous system and probably has had a bigger effect than i realized or cared to consider.

This illness forced me to pay attention and spotlight on how i interacted with people, my wants, constant pleasure seeking behaviors ( tv, food sex etc.) my constant rumination on becoming better, or what someone said or did not say. I had no choice but to pay attention- everything was draning me. I felt like up to the point of becoming sick, Ive never really examined my self on a day to day basis and further more, on a moment to moment basis. When i forced myself to look at myself honestly, It came to me as a shock- Im really a nervous person, although througout my life i considered myself normal and would even obnoxiously label myself as outgoing. All my habits and conditioned behaviors, starting from childhood, has been shaping and wiring my brain towards a path that i couldnt sustain and would contribute to me becoming sick.

I dont mean to say that stress causes cfs, but just to maybe consider that everything that we are doing in every moment of our lives has a physical and emotional effect. Habits that we endulge in daily may be contributing towards a hyper arousal state that is non- conducive to this illness. How many people really pay attemtion to themselves in every moment of their lives. I know i didnt.

If you were to ask me if stress had a part in me becoming sick, i would have probably denied it. But now, its very clear, for me anyways, that along with genetic factors, latent infections, and other contributing factors, how i dealt with life probably had an impact beyond my current understanding of science, health, and reason.

 

[Sandman00747]

My dad had just passed away and this really tore me up as he had suffered for several years and we were so

close. And many of my friends, as well as numerous health care professionals, have told me many times that

this is what contributed greatly to my getting ill. However, like many of you, I will never forget that day when I

came onto this illness and remember so well thinking this is so unlike any kind of ill feeling that I have ever

encountered in my entire life. It felt as though it were some type of "alien" illness. I could never have imagined

how this was going to affect my life to the extent that it has!

 

[Groggy Doggy]

I think the trigger of ME is more aligned with a 'perfect storm'. Multiple events are hitting us at the same time (genetic, prescriptions/vaccines, environmental toxins) and our bodies can no longer adapt to these stressors (we are on overload).

 

[Mary]

The first forty years of my life was almost non-stop stress, so it doesn't surprise me that I am ill!

I had the same experience, severe chronic stress since early childhood. My health started to go south at age 35 and developed full-blown ME/CFS at age 47. I've always linked the stress to getting sick. It wasn't one traumatic event.

However, I think @JaimeS makes a very good point, that perhaps the stress played a major role in the onset of ME/CFS, but did not actually cause it, just more of a perfect storm I think. I have other family members who were subjected to the same severe stressors, and none of them developed ME/CFS. In fact, most are remarkably healthy!

 

[JohnCB]

I think that the people who attribute our illness to stress are making a cop-out. We all suffer stress as we live our lives, it is the human condition. The people who do this don't consider whether it is actually reasonable to connect our illness to any particular event. Yes, I do know someone who went down with ME after a car crash, but there the connection, if the connection is correct, is down to physical trauma. She was very badly injured and her face is still showing the kind of injury that took place.

Many things are counted as stressful events. Obviously death of a relative or divorce are counted as stressful as are many other life events. People who actually study stress seriously don't however stop at these obvious stressers. Getting a new job and getting married are also scored as stressful events. So are exams and all the other rituals we all go through in this life. Stress is routine and you have to accumulate a number of stressers to actually score as being susceptible to stress related illness.

To cap it for me, I have read many articles advising about stress and the kind of effect it can have. They advise what kind of illness might follow. In not a single one of these articles has a "stress expert" ever included ME or CFS as a potential result of stress.

No, the people who suggest that our illness is the result of stress rarely actually know much about the subject. They have little understanding of what stress can do or what stress actually is, and little understanding of ME/CFS either. They are opportunists and just like suggestions of hysteria, they are quite happy to belittle us and to blame us for our illness.

 

[JaimeS]

Rib pain in general, such as when inhaling or poking.

Always had chostocondritis myself. Le shocker: because they don't know what causes it, it's associated with anxiety.

 

[meandthecat]

I was on high, things achieved, things completed, then Hero to Zero.

It was a bug; like being hit by a train( I imagine), probably worse because you'd have to be hit by a train everyday for 5 yrs to feel like this and just sort of gently run over for the next few years.

I don't play with the trains anymore, I guess I was a slow learner.

 

[frog_in_the_fog]

I was on high, things achieved, things completed, then Hero to Zero.

Yep, I was working long hours, then the brick wall came. I was super rundown, so there is little doubt in my mind that this was the start of my downward spiral. I feel like I am stuck in a whack-a-mole game, constantly being beatdown by my illness.​

 

[erin]

No stress prior to M.E., I had chicken pox. A very nasty and long lasting chicken pox, and bird flu immediately and all sorts of other flu's and more since then. My life is not the same ever.

 

[unto]

My debut was infectious.
I do not believe at emotional beginnings it, traumatic, these stressors
They could have resulted in the taking of conscience of the sick because they have aggravated the symptoms ......
The ME sufferers often exhibit hypersensitivity: the light, to noise, to the exhaust gas, detergents, in paints, medications, etc., Etc. so for stress, although the first probably for neurological reasons, while stress also for practical reasons ..... because in our state we only stresses the thought of having: commitments, visits or many things to do.
I imagine a return to the days before the disease and looking at how many things I was doing, I am tempted to blame that I was sick to the stress, but our problems are probably due to inflammation of the nerve tissue including the feel .... easily stressed

 

[unto]

sorry, machine translation is not great ...
I will try again ....
when we look at before you get sick we are influenced by our
current state of "fatigued", the vast majority of us had a normal life
like 90% of people today, just think of how many things they did and especially feeling unable to make them now, a lean to see the stress as the cause of ME ......
I do not think has ever been shown that stress can cause disease, the more trying to explain a worldwide epidemic as is the ME



in the previous post I meant: early viral

 

[nikefourstar]

Am I the only one who happened to be extremely stressed due do to another illness I was having, had an extremely bad day pain wise worse than usual took to many drugs gapapenten and all this anti acid drugs. Woke up the next morning felt perfectly fine because the chronic pain in my larynx, I take a shower I get out and all of a sudden I have this crazy fatigue come over me. I got scared and I ran around the block just to see if I could do it. I did it with no pem. Felt pretty weak in my legs and arms but could still physically do things, have minimal pem. Got really bad head aches too, kind of felt like you have flu. Now the headaches are gone brain fog sort of but can still read a ton and don't have trouble finding words never really feel mentally fitigued defiantly never get pem from mental things. But the fatigue is still there the pem is actually noticeable now, I don't wake up and feel like I cant move with is a plus but still feel like I didn't sleep at all when I wake up. So my symptoms are to main thing pem but doesn't have me crippled for days I can get up and everything it just doesn't feel good. I spend most time in bed because my room makes me more calm when I feel like totally shit, but I guess I could be on the couch watching tv with my parents but it gives me anxiety I had random
bouts where I went to a friends house at like 6:00 am because I could sleep drove there fine, was prettt exhausted when I got back but I didn't wake up feeling like total shit. All I know is I'm scared as shit. I really hope it doesn't get worse. Glad my headaches went away and some of the spaces out feeling but I need to be able to use my arms and legs, I was a promising glass blowing artist before this hit I want so bad to glass blow again. I'm sorry I'm having a really difficult time especially since I've been severely depressed for a year before my cfs. So it's like I'm already as low as you can get mentally I just hope thing improve to the paint where I can at least have a friend over or watch movies with my parents

 

[JaimeS]

Am I the only one who happened to be extremely stressed due do to another illness I was having, had an extremely bad day pain wise worse than usual took to many drugs gapapenten and all this anti acid drugs. Woke up the next morning felt perfectly fine because the chronic pain in my larynx, I take a shower I get out and all of a sudden I have this crazy fatigue come over me.

This might have been your precipitating infection, @nikefourstar . Lots of people have GI infections as their triggering event.

I went to a friends house at like 6:00 am because I could sleep drove there fine

Environmental triggers? How far are you into your illness, how long have you had ME symptoms?

Welcome to the forums!

 

[Dechi]

I had a very stressful job and was in a toxic relationship, but I was doing ok, I am used to managing high levels of stress. Until I had a first viral infection in 2013 which left me apparently ok but my first ME symptoms appeared (I didn't know it was ME at the time). I kept working but never went back to the high level of physical fitness I had before that event. I kept working out, kept the same job, the same bad relationship. I was getting more and more tired and probably on the verge of a burn-out. Then came The second viral infection, very nasty. My immune system was already down, so this one got the best of me and things started to go down really fast. Within 6 months I couldn't work anymore.

In conclusion, no emotional trigger for me. Just viral infections and a beat-up immune system that couldn't do its job.

 

[Hip]

The supposed connection between a period of stress before the onset of ME/CFS could be explained in a different biochemical way:

If you have the illness of generalized anxiety disorder (a condition in which there is a lot continuous mental tension and/or worry, most likely caused by aberrant biochemistry in the brain), this anxiety disorder has been shown to increase the risk of developing functional somatic disorders such as ME/CFS.

Now, as someone who experienced several years of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) just before the virally-linked onset of my ME/CFS, I can tell you that once you have GAD, a lot of things in your life suddenly become stressful. Even things that you previously were able to do in a relaxed, easy, and enjoyable manner now become stressful, tense or worry-laden.

But this does not mean that your life itself has become more demanding or problematic (nothing externally had changed in my life at the time I developed GAD); it just means that your mental ability to cope with potential stressors has been greatly reduced, as a result of your generalized anxiety disorder. And it is important to distinguish between situations where your life itself has genuinely become more stressful, from situations where, because you developed GAD, your life seems to be more stressful.

To give you an example: I had numerous friends at around the time that I first developed GAD; before GAD, visiting such friends was always a very enjoyable pleasure that I would look forward to; but as soon as I developed GAD, I started finding these very same social visits very stressful. Nothing had changed in the world or in my life, it was just the biochemistry of my brain that had changed, so that what was previously relaxed and enjoyable now became tense and fraught with anxiety.


So I suspect that when people report that they experienced a period of stress before the onset of ME/CFS, in many cases, this could be due to the fact that, unbeknown to them, they had developed anxiety disorder, which can then make it feel as if life has become very stressful, when in fact nothing may have changed in your life.

You may think that life has become more stressful, because you may be unaware that you have developed generalized anxiety disorder. This was my case: I did not at the time understand what had happened to my brain, because GAD can creep up on you slowly: it just seemed to me as if the world and my life had got more and more stressful; it was only many years later, when I learnt about illnesses such as GAD, that realized it was not my external life that had become stressful, it was just my brain which was no longer able to cope with things, due to having GAD.

So I erroneously perceived the world and my life as becoming more stressful, when in fact the cause of this stress was internal to my brain, not external in the world.


So when ME/CFS patients say they experienced a period of stress before the onset of their ME/CFS, in reality, they may have just developed generalized anxiety disorder (which makes life feel more stressful), and this GAD condition is known to increase the risk of developing functional somatic disorders.


My GAD incidentally appeared as one of the symptom of my IBS, a bowel condition known to cause this anxiety disorder. This IBS itself I suspect was probably caused by contracting some type of pathogen, as my mother also developed IBS at exactly the same time, suggesting a common cause such as an infectious pathogen (post infectious IBS has been linked to various pathogens including Campylobacter, Shigella, Salmonella and Escherichia coli).

 

[Dechi]

@Hip Interesting post. I have GAD, but I had it all my life. With ME, it went from moderate and managed to severe and unmanaged. I am not going back to a more managed state of GAD.

 

[Hip]

@Hip Interesting post. I have GAD, but I had it all my life. With ME, it went from moderate and managed to severe and unmanaged. I am not going back to a more managed state of GAD.

Did I ever point you to my thread here: Completely eliminated my severe anxiety symptoms with three supplements!

 

[duncan]

increase the risk of developing functional somatic disorders such as ME/CFS.

ME/CFS is not a functional somatic disorder. It is a disease.

 

[Hip]

ME/CFS is not a functional somatic disorder. It is a disease.

ME/CFS is a disease, but in terms of classification, ME/CFS is described functional somatic disorder (even if like me, you don't agree with the psychogenic etiological explanations given for functional disorders).

So if the study has shown that anxiety increases the risk of functional somatic disorders, then having a condition such as generalized anxiety disorder (which is also a disease, and a nasty one at that), may well increase the risk of developing ME/CFS.