POLL: Do you have THIS symptom? (If you click please answer either way to avoid sample bias)

[vision blue]

Hi. Sorry for all polls. I realize i have no idea for how many this is an issue. In fact, until recently, i didnt realize that my crazy overactive sympathetic system was a symptom of CFS.

If youre not sure what this means and want to know more before answering, im sure others can explain better than me or maybe have some goid liks Sympathetic controls fight or flight mode- think too much adreniline or nor adrenaline (in contrast to the parasympathetic “rest and digest” system.

Im asking everyone who makes it to this page if at all possible to pick the best answer regardless. Otherwise we run the risk that only people who have this symptom will be interested enough to bother which would prevent getting an accurate assesament. Thats also why i did not list the symptom in the title because then only primarily those with the symptom would be interested enough to open the thread.

Maybe its a good place to discuss this symptom too. I realky dont think i had this until my CFS changed after a virus. Maybe it just hadnt reached threshold?

Feel free to discuss when it manifested for you. There all along? Appear suddenly? Gradually and Got worse over time? Better over time? Never an issue fir you? When did you realize what was happening to you?

 

[Nord Wolf]

Dealing with severe cptsd for years, and the intense and prolonged training I went through, and style of work I was involved with, I've lived with this symptom for a very long time. It is one main issue my docs feel may have been the underlying cause for my development of ME/CFS. So I had this issue long before developing ME/CFS. That being said, I cannot say one way or another if the ME/CFS has aggravated the condition already present. But there is no doubt that this condition has been running in my system strongly for a long time. I have biofeedback charts through the Professional Heartmath machines showing it.

 

[ljimbo423]

Dealing with severe cptsd for years

Same here. I developed severe anxiety and panic attacks when I was 13. Then got ME/CFS when I was 17. At 17 I went through a massively stressful period, that lasted a year or 2. I also had a viral infection in the same time period. These 2 things are what I believe triggered my ME/CFS. Along with the underlying cPTSD.

It is one main issue my docs feel may have been the underlying cause for my development of ME/CFS.

After 45 years of ME/CFS, at least 20,000 hours of research in the last 15 years, and many, many, thousands of dollars spent on supplements, I also feel that chronic stress from cPTSD is the underlying cause of my ME/CFS.

 

[Alvin2]

What is excessive sympathetic nervous system activity?

 

[Nord Wolf]

I also feel that chronic stress from cPTSD is the underlying cause of my ME/CFS.

Did you ever consider or look into Stellate Ganglion Block? As I'm sure you well know, ptsd/cptsd exists in degrees along a spectrum. Mine never involved panic attacks or anxiety, but other just as disruptive issues.
It sucks that one has to expend that much time and money only to figure out the condition was most probably caused by cptsd...

 

[Nord Wolf]

What is excessive sympathetic nervous system activity?

Inability for the nervous system to relax. Hyper-arousal, hyper-vigilance, feeling wired all the time even if you are exhausted; chronic elevated heart and breathing patterns, hyper-reactivity, difficulty calming down, excessive thought processes, excessive or deficiency in sexual energy, excessive epinephrine and cortisol production, dry mouth, sluggish digestive system, hypertension...
Excessive sympathetic nervous system activity can lead to diabetes, heart failure, Parkinson's Disease, blood vessel damage and other serious complications.

 

[ljimbo423]

Did you ever consider or look into Stellate Ganglion Block?

No I haven't yet. I'm dealing with the root cause of the cPTSD. As I'm sure you know, it's not an easy or quick fix. But after 45 years, I feel like this is my last option.

I am feeling significantly better, with less fatigue, PEM, pain, etc, since I started working on my cPTSD, just 7 weeks ago. So I feel cautiously optimistic that I will continue to improve, as long as I continue the work.

 

[vision blue]

What is excessive sympathetic nervous system activity?

Nord wolf did a nice job describing some of the symptoms. Heres a paper but its more on consequences
. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679852/#!po=0.236967

You cannalso get sweating, cold extremities, inability to concentrate, feel like youve had 10 cups of coffee, feelm “revved up”

Note you do not have to have PTSD or even anxiety to have too much sympathetic activation tho many seem to to interpret the jitteriness and discomfirt to anxiety You do not have to have any cognitive thoughts accompying it at all.

Unlike some others on this thread, i did not have any of this overarousal until after cfs, not before

Heres a random site with a little info

https://www.healthnutritionnews.org/health/overactive-sympathetic-nervous-system

Alvin- will teach you everything you want to know if you teach me what youve learned about little houses (and socks?)

 

[Judee]

When I used the Wahoo monitor and the elite HRV app, it always charted me as leaning very sympathetically.

I have a print screen on this post: https://forums.phoenixrising.me/thr...rview-with-dr-erin-cvejic.83006/#post-2323636

(That's not my reading though; just a picture of the app that I found online somewhere.)

 

[Arius]

I went to school for psychology and spend a lot of time reading up on and learning about the nervous system. I still had to pause for a moment to remember what the sympathetic nervous system was responsible for. You may want to define that before asking people about it.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

You cannalso get sweating, cold extremities, inability to concentrate, feel like youve had 10 cups of coffee, feelm “revved up”

With me, it's more like "Wired But Tired" ..... comes and goes in unpredictable waves ....

And big YESSSSSSS to a sort of flash-mob anxiety and panic attacks, infinitely better than they used to be, but stress of any kind just pitches me off the cliff ....

Magnesium helps enormously, along with Vit C and small amounts of melatonin, and on those really bad days, I gobble them like M&M's ....

EDIT .... typo and syntax ....

 

[Alvin2]

Nord wolf did a nice job describing some of the symptoms. Heres a paper but its more on consequences
. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679852/#!po=0.236967

You cannalso get sweating, cold extremities, inability to concentrate, feel like youve had 10 cups of coffee, feelm “revved up”

Note you do not have to have PTSD or even anxiety to have too much sympathetic activation tho many seem to to interpret the jitteriness and discomfirt to anxiety You do not have to have any cognitive thoughts accompying it at all.

Unlike some others on this thread, i did not have any of this overarousal until after cfs, not before

Heres a random site with a little info

https://www.healthnutritionnews.org/health/overactive-sympathetic-nervous-system

Alvin- will teach you everything you want to know if you teach me what youve learned about little houses (and socks?)

I have some of those symptoms but i feel more like my body is shutting down over time.

 

[keepswimming]

Definitely. I've found the best way to have some control over it is by pacing, if I overdo I get a massive adrenaline rush/sympathetic nervous system activation. I also measure hrv, comparing my hrv to my husband and Mum who also measure theirs I can see my sympathetic nervous system is far, far more active.

 

[Artemisia]

Yes, since a child been anxious, nervous, major startle response, hyperaware. C-PTSD. Abuse and neglect as a child definitely contributed to, if not caused, most of my health issues. Depression, trouble in relationships, mood swings, trouble relaxing, perfectionist. Fast heart rate (80-90 at rest). I was always thin as a child but when my health collapsed and started getting syx of ME/CFS 12 years ago, gained a ton of weight around the middle which I think is from chronic elevated cortisol.

 

[vision blue]

I went to school for psychology and spend a lot of time reading up on and learning about the nervous system. I still had to pause for a moment to remember what the sympathetic nervous system was responsible for. You may want to define that before asking people about it.

You can just select “not sure” or the other no-answer-answer

 

[Mouse girl]

i never had the fight or flight thing until recently developing severe ctpsd. I did have other normal CFS/ME nervous system symptoms though, but since you defined it as fight or flight, no, not related to cfs/me for me.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

hI @vision blue ....
With PR polls, I've always been able to see who responded in the positive to which symtoms. On this poll, there's no way to activate that.

Is there some reason for that? A I missing something (wouldnt be the first time )