ChrisD
Senior Member
- Messages
- 475
- Location
- East Sussex
I was having a discussion with my Acupuncturist about Autoimmune disease in the area that she practices in the UK by comparison to her original home in South America (Where she used to live a few years ago). She said that she has never seen so many people with Inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as Arthritis, MS, ME, IBS, Crohn's etc. and that in South America the prevalence of these diseases is very low despite the fact that there are plenty of Germs/bacteria/parasites that you might expect to cause some issues.
As a patriot of her country, she put's this down to the way society is focused around Family, Networks of friends and Micro-communities. Also a culture of being open and honest, sharing feelings and emotions, and not carrying the burden of negative thoughts or worrries. It was slightly frustrating for me to hear that after going through various counselling sessions and CBT and coming to realise that this illness is most certainly NOT IN MY HEAD. But it did get me thinking about the fact that she might have a point on a larger scale, that at a deeper level than any doctor or psychologist can diagnose a CFS patient of having psychological influence to their illness, that really ALL Autoimmune disease is influenced by Western culture. So whilst the UK Psychology team for CFS waste their time trying to put a finger on how Psychology causes CFS, they are missing the point that it is not just Psychology but environment, culture, society, lifestyle that are the TRIGGER the onset of many autoimmune/ neuroimmune diseases BUT NOT the factors that maintain the illness. Yet other diseases than CFS have treatments or cures because the research approach has been to come in from an angle of assessing the biological status post-triggering of the disease.
It compounds the fact that it is wholly irresponsible to put the responsibility of ''changing psychology'' or ''mindset'' as treatment of CFS on the patient when they are not necessarily capable of changing their environment and society. Imagine telling someone with Multiple Sclerosis to do so?
I personally believe that the triggers for ME/CFS are or can be any combination of Psychological stress, Physical stress and almost 100% of the time a virus. But beyond that, the illness is not maintained by psychology but by biological dysfunction (Gut, Liver, Enzymes and so onn). So for someone like Esther Crawley to go down the Psychological route is even more of a waste of time in my opinion.
I know that a lot of people might not like this post so feel free to delete it/move it from the main discussion board or whatever, but I just wanted to share a concept that has been on my mind and see if anyone agrees or has anything to add. Thanks.
As a patriot of her country, she put's this down to the way society is focused around Family, Networks of friends and Micro-communities. Also a culture of being open and honest, sharing feelings and emotions, and not carrying the burden of negative thoughts or worrries. It was slightly frustrating for me to hear that after going through various counselling sessions and CBT and coming to realise that this illness is most certainly NOT IN MY HEAD. But it did get me thinking about the fact that she might have a point on a larger scale, that at a deeper level than any doctor or psychologist can diagnose a CFS patient of having psychological influence to their illness, that really ALL Autoimmune disease is influenced by Western culture. So whilst the UK Psychology team for CFS waste their time trying to put a finger on how Psychology causes CFS, they are missing the point that it is not just Psychology but environment, culture, society, lifestyle that are the TRIGGER the onset of many autoimmune/ neuroimmune diseases BUT NOT the factors that maintain the illness. Yet other diseases than CFS have treatments or cures because the research approach has been to come in from an angle of assessing the biological status post-triggering of the disease.
It compounds the fact that it is wholly irresponsible to put the responsibility of ''changing psychology'' or ''mindset'' as treatment of CFS on the patient when they are not necessarily capable of changing their environment and society. Imagine telling someone with Multiple Sclerosis to do so?
I personally believe that the triggers for ME/CFS are or can be any combination of Psychological stress, Physical stress and almost 100% of the time a virus. But beyond that, the illness is not maintained by psychology but by biological dysfunction (Gut, Liver, Enzymes and so onn). So for someone like Esther Crawley to go down the Psychological route is even more of a waste of time in my opinion.
I know that a lot of people might not like this post so feel free to delete it/move it from the main discussion board or whatever, but I just wanted to share a concept that has been on my mind and see if anyone agrees or has anything to add. Thanks.