Violence and the Connection With Chronic Illness – A Problem in the Global Village.

Today is theme day, over at the Science and Health Channel at b5media. Check out all of the great posts over at Veggie Chic . For today’s topic, we are to write about a topic that affects the entire world. There is an issue that is really important to me, which has lead me to believe is the cause of my battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (I have written about this before, but its time I go into detail). Violence is a topic that needs to be discussed, and since this blog is written by a woman, and while its not exclusively written for women (it is mostly read by women), therefore I will focus on violence against women.

Violence against women can be caused by cultural and gender differences, or brought on by other instances of violence. Violence can even be brought about from trying to cope from a stressful event. There are other reasons as well (such as church and others), but I don’t really feel up to discussing these right now. I am trying to make this as general as possible….and church violence just falls into a completely different category (at least for me).

Violence is an epidemic that is in desperate need for a cure. How do we cure it? Certainly the “an eye for an eye” mentality doesn’t work, as it just continues the cycle. Prison? Our prisons are bursting, and an institution like that is known to breed more violence. So what do we do. Well we can start with educating the public. Talking about violent acts is very important. This is how we stop the cycle. If we hit, because we were hit, we need to find out why we were hit in the first place.

Women in the middle east are punished if they are raped. Let me reiterate this. The victims are punished. Not the rapists. The victims are severely punished. Why? Because that is how the law has been interpreted and reinterpreted. I have no idea how to stop cultural violence. I wish I had an answer for it. You just cant go up to someone in the middle of a beating and put your hand out and say “stop this”, well at least not in Iran. Stopping a rape in progress there, is just as much of a crime as getting raped.

Anyway I digress, I am supposed to be writing about how chronic illness is connected to violence. I found some information on this sitecalled bullyonline.org that talks about the stresses of bullying, and how they are physically manifested in the victim. Now bullying, while very wrong is just the tip of the iceberg. But, for our purposes the symptoms caused by excessive bullying will work just fine. Here are some of the symptoms that a person under extreme stress can experience:

main symptoms include: stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, fatigue, trauma.

physical symptoms include: reduced immunity to infection leading to frequent colds, coughs, flu, glandular fever, aches and pains (fibromyalgia), back pain, chest pain, angina, high blood pressure, headaches, sweating, palpitations, trembling, hormonal problems, physical numbness, emotional numbness, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, shy bladder syndrome, thyroid problems, petit mal seizures, skin disorders, excessive or abnormal thirst, waking up more tired than when you went to bed.

Wow! Most of those sound very familiar to what I deal with on an ongoing basis.

psychological symptoms: panic attacks, reactive depression, thoughts of suicide, stress breakdown, forgetfulness, impoverished memory, poor concentration, flashbacks, excessive guilt, disbelief and confusion, an unusual degree of fear, sense of isolation, insecurity, desperation, vomiting at the thought of meeting bully or attacker.

behavioral symptoms: tearfulness, irritability, angry outbursts, obsessiveness, hypervigilance, hypersensitivity, sullenness, mood swings, withdrawal, indecision, loss of humour, hyper awareness, excessive biting, teeth grinding, picking, scratching, increased reliance on drugs or alcohol, comfort spending, phobias.

effects on personality: shattered self confidence, low self image, loss of self worth and love.

All of the symptoms listed are what a person under extreme stress can experience. Exposure to stresses such as violence (whether short or long term) can be so devastating to an individual that recovering from it may not be entirely possible. This is when chronic illness strikes its red hot iron. When a person’s defenses (I am talking internal now) are down, as we just learned that stress can cause some pretty wacky immune problems. Illness such as CFS and others which appear to have gradual onsets will find a really cozy home with stressed out individuals.

So how do we stop it? Like I said, I don’t have any answers although I wish I did. Other than counseling and talking about stresses and just being aware can help us cope with any residual effects of the event that took place.

I am not even suggesting that violence is the reason that you or any of us have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or any other chronic illness. I am only saying that its a possible reason for a illness that isn’t at all understood (least of all the cause).