What Caused Your CFS?
July 8, 2007 by laura
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Long time readers of this blog, know that I do not subscribe to the mystery illness thread. I know how I came to battle CFS. Whether the CFIDS community agrees with me or not, is of no consequence to me.
For those of you who are fairly new to this blog, let me enlighten you. I am a believer that trauma is the cause of my struggles with this illness. I will not talk about the issues that I deal with on here, as that is for therapists and the very closest of my friends… but I will share enough to let you know, that it was years of not dealing with these problems that built up until I could no longer function.
I can not have any remorse about how I handled these problems, since the people who were responsible for me have chosen not to give the events two seconds worth of thought. One can only effectively deal with things, when they are given the proper tools. I now have a forum where I can discuss my problems with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and hopefully others can learn from what I have discovered.
Recently, I came across this statistic. According to CDC researchers, childhood trauma raises a person’s risk of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by three to eight-fold. Eight times more the chance to get CFS than someone who has not had some form of trauma in their own lives!!!!
This is how the CDC has broken down the levels of childhood trauma into the following categories:
- Eightfold higher risk of CFS with childhood sexual abuse.
- 5.9-fold higher risk of CFS with childhood physical neglect.
- 4.6-fold higher risk of CFS with childhood emotional neglect.
- 4.3-fold higher risk of CFS with childhood physical abuse.
- 2.9-fold higher risk of CFS with childhood emotional abuse.
It appears that CFS is part of a spectrum of disorders that are associated with childhood adversity. In adulthood, these disorders frequently manifest or worsen in relation to acute stress or challenge. These disorders might reflect the brain’s inability to adapt or compensate in response to challenge, leading toward maladaptive responses and ultimately disease.
Emotional instability is also linked to CFS, where there is a 72% higher risk of CFS symptoms. Emotional instability is a personality trait that is linked depression, low self esteem, anxiety, and guilt. These researchers go on to say that while emotional instability is an indirect risk factor to CFS, stress is a direct link to CFS.
Perhaps doctors should be recommending psychological treatment, counseling, and classes on coping skills instead of pushing medication as the first course of treatment.
Research provided by CDC researcher Christine Heim and colleagues, as well as the Swedish Twin Registry. To read a more comprehensive editorial, please go here.
Like I said, I have written about this before. If you want to read more you can click here and for someone else’s point of view, go here.
My doctor definitely thinks my CFS is related to PTSD. In my case the trauma was a hurricane. (The vast majority of people who experience hurricanes get PTSD to some degree.) This theory definitely works in Chinese medicine because they say “fright” damages the kidney/adrenal qi, which is related to physical vitality. It also fits with Western medicine as we know people with CFS have low cortisol levels, which indicates dysfunction in the adrenal glands.
Unfortunately there are no easy answers for PTSD. There are options but trauma is a slippery thing to work with.
Makes perfect sense to me. Especially since people are so connected to weather…..severe forms of weather can do a whole lot of damage. I completely believe that it could cause a lot of stress to a person’s emotional state.
How are you now, in severe storms? Are your CFS symptoms worse when the winds start blowing upwards of 80 km/hr?
“Stress” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Try “total terror.” There’s nothing quite like having Mother Nature try to kill you. Hurricane survivors may appear normal but when they talk about it you can see the terror in their eyes, even decades later. It doesn’t go away.
Wind used to bother me, but not so much any more. It’s not quite the same as a phobia, which is more of a specific learned response in the brain. Trauma is a whole-body experience, which is what makes it so hard to treat. In shamanic traditions trauma is seen as a spiritual injury–it cuts that deep.
I didn’t mean to be disrespectful by using the word “stress”. The words stress and trauma are often interchangeable for me.
I understand what trauma response is….its something I have experienced. I know people who share a similar experience to trauma brought on by a natural disaster. And for at least one of them, its hard to bring them back, when their mind goes back there…..its all consuming.
I just thought that if high winds are prevalent to where you live….that they might trigger a similar reaction. Or maybe its something different…or nothing anymore, if you have a handle on it…if its the last one, then I am very pleased.
Trauma is very misunderstood….I don’t pretend to understand what anyone else’s experience is like….I do hope that you have days where you can live free of the experience though….as that is what I want for myself.
What I find interesting with you, is you said that your doctor 100% agrees that it was PTSD that brought on your health issues. I think this is excellent…and it sounds like your doc is on target, when I read what you have had to say.
Many doctors refuse to link the 2 together (mine included in that…even-though I insist)…I think doctors they might be afraid of telling the patient that their illness has psychological roots….or maybe just canadian docs.
I’m glad you understand. “Stress” seems like such an understatement to me, sort of like “fatigue” in CFS.
No, it’s not windy where I live. I think maybe you’re wondering if being exposed to winds triggered my CFS, but I don’t think it’s that simple. I think trauma weakens the body over time and makes it ripe for the CFS disease process (usually involving viral infection, as it did with me). In other words it’s not a cause, but a contributing factor, and as long as the trauma is there it will take energy away and prevent the possibility of recovering from the CFS. That’s the way I see it, anyway.
I try not to get too hung up on words. Which is why sometimes I use words such as stress and trauma interchangeably, even when its inappropriate.
I was wondering about the wind triggering symptoms for you, because for me things like a certain shade of green, a certain smell, even certain words (in other words a psychological trigger) will cause a rather extreme set back. It is all tied in together.
I think you and I agree on the topic, just have rather different experiences. No wonder we get a long so well
I definitely need a better way to cope with my issues, and when I figure that out, hopefully my cfs symptoms will lessen.
Ah yes, there is no question that emotional upset makes CFS symptoms worse, whether it’s a trauma flashback or something new. And definitely, finding some way to heal past traumas can only help.
Agreed!
Could I sum up the article by saying that CFS could be caused by extreme emotional stress?
I believe that childhood stress may have been a factor in causing the allergies I have. Stress may well be a factor in many other diseases, in combination with other factors.
Lucky for me, I can manage my allergies, so I don’t have to manage CFS instead. The trigger may be related however.
Yes!
For some people, I believe emotional stress (distress?) is a cause Not everyone of course….but there are probably more than a few of us, who can fit that description.
Sorry to hear about your childhood stress causing your allergies. It does make sense, that they could be connected (at least in my own mind).
Managing cfs, is a lot like managing allergies…you just need to find what works for you, and eliminate the stuff that doesn’t. Easier said than done, I know!