Has anyone tried not talking about your illness over a long period and seeing if it helped?

[MeSci]

I keep a daily journal of what I eat and drink, how I've slept, and how the day went. I've done this for years. It's very useful when I get an idea for a new intervention, and I can easily see my baseline and track changes.

I keep a health diary too, partly as an aid to working out what helps and what harms. It helped me to eventually work out that my PEM normally kicked in 2 days after exertion, so that I could relate it to what I had done, which helps me to reduce the risk of over-exertion. One day, when I can afford to take the time, I plan to go through all the little details I have recorded to try to work out what is happening in my body at different stages of the exertion-PEM cycle. Ideally I would then like to get tests done at the different stages and correlate these with the symptoms. This is research, not obsession!

 

[stridor]

MeSci
My Dr uses everything at his disposal PubMed, google scholar...wherever he can find the information. "Dr Google" is supposed to be a derogatory term suggesting access to inferior information gleaned from internet searches. Everyone here knows that sites have either wheat or chaff and all of us to varying degrees have the innate ability to differentiate between the two. Or we would still be sick instead of getting better.

Of course, we get to stand on the shoulders of guys like Fredd and Rich. I am luckier than some here. I only had ME show up after the internet. It must have been a nightmare before.

 

[MeSci]

I only had ME show up after the internet. It must have been a nightmare before.

It was even more of a nightmare than it is now. At least we can contact other sufferers now and make some sense of it all. In the past, one was just left lost and bewildered for years, completely at the mercy of ignorant 'experts'.

 

[Beyond]

I am talking less-and-less about my illness. This is not a conscious effort on my part; it's just happening. I think that the constant self-talk and rehashing of illness or worst yet, explaining the science behind ideas are all a form of OCD. When you turn the corner and start to get well...we'll talk more about this in a sec....this goes away on its own. I think that it is common to all disorders which are not accepted by the medical community at large. We feel the need to justify how we feel and do so either with an apologetic tone or one of defiance.
I have as much energy and exercise tolerance as 2 months ago....and I have approximately as much brain-fog. A bit less but it's still there. But I don't talk as much about mercury or methylation to others. Here, yes. There, no. People who have avoided me the past couple of years are coming up and asking how I am doing....and some people are asking in various ways for help. They see something in my face, I think, that tells them that I am returning.

Hoho that is me! I really have to stop placing little scientific speeches over and over again to my parents now that they have understood what I have (I really never did that to friends when I had them). And stop talking about how shitty I feel. Feeling less shitty as I heal will help lol I am quite OCDish so I really understand what you say and agree fully.

But yeah, as others said, healthy people believe that if you do not talk or think about it you will magically heal. That is because these blessed persons actually believe it is all in your head. I just believe that talking less about this illness is a marker of improvement, normally because you feel better and not really the other way around.

stridor Woo I want that doctor. And about that new "mental illness"... Nice move allopathy! Just in time. But only the unaware will let that trap them. Which although still numerous are less everyday.