Subject Spiral

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia And The Stress Spiral

Anxiety and stress are an unfortunate, but sometimes necessary and inevitable feature of modern life.

As with diet, obesity, alcohol and smoking I am afraid that the news is easy. They have to be addressed.

Learning to deal with stress is something that may be consciously learned and practiced and new techniques have proven very effective.

A higher than average percentage of patients undergoing Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue treatment are, or were, engaged in high stress environments.

This can be or have been in the home, as carers of relatives or young children. It was in work detail or during a divorce or home move.

Whatever the create a significant increase in stress is generally cited at the time of onset of the sufferers Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome symptoms.

Along with being implicated pre-onset, stress reactions take part in the maintenance and exacerbation of the Syndrome post-onset.

Blood pressure, heart rate, the entire endocrine system which controls hormone production are all implicated and involved during stress reactions.

Unfortunately, the system that directly controls every one of these systems, the Autonomic Nervous System, in particular the Sympathetic Nervous System or "day nerve" remains malfunctional post-onset.

The effect, unfortunately, will be an exacerbated negative result of your Fatigue and Fibromyalgia symptoms to stress and anxiety producing situations.

To create matters worse there is evidence that once activated the worries reaction lasts abnormally longer in patients suffering from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Is CFS more common in stressed people?

I'd like to first provide a very broad outline of how general medical advice is presented to Healthcare providers in diagnosing Fibromyalgia and CFS patients:

"frequently seen characteristics of CFS and Fibromyalgia patients

* People who through their very own personal attitudes and anxieties tend to make their own lives mores stressful.

* People who are highly ambitious, they appear to be always active physically and mentally.

* People whose lives are fully absorbed handling the requirements and requirements of others.

* People who avoid taking the time they want for themselves to rest, relax and recuperate and build supportive relationships which can be entirely their very own.

*People that have difficulty finding the others to confide in, so bottling up years of emotions and pain occasionally of bereavement or loss. "

In itself this is not an inaccurate description of frequently seen characteristics of Fibromyalgia and CFS sufferers. However it is indeed broad that it can describe patients with numerous other conditions.

As i have said many times the body is a remarkably resilient organism, in a position to accommodate fantastic pressures and stresses, but as with all machines and organisms there comes a breaking point.

Stress is apparently a very large facilitating factor for people who get to be the unfortunate ones to build up CFS and Fibromyalgia post "trigger" infection or trauma.

A smaller, but nonetheless analogous example of stress related conditions is often referred to as "burnout", or simply just "stress" and I quote.

"A series of personal life circumstances combine to create a "breaking point", for instance; death of a close member of the family, chronic pain, moving house, bullying at the job, divorce, separation, financial loss or redundancy have all been connected to detrimental changes in health "

How stress can become a causal element in Fibromyalgia and CFS

The first trauma which was the notable "trigger" of your CFS or Fibromyalgia is usually cited as a bacterial/viral or chemically invasive attack of some kind, but it's been noted that in certain sufferers extreme acute stress, such as bereavement, divorce, bullying, extremes of overwork may also be a trigger for CFS symptoms in the lack of a notable infection or exposure.

This is practical because scientific evidence shows conclusively that stress lowers our immune defenses against infection as witnessed by white blood cell and lymphocyte counts.

Also, stress has been proven to directly affect your body in the short to medium term causing extreme fatigue and more disabling problems such as migraine, impairment of concentration and memory and interrupted sleep patterns.

Fortunately, as a society we have been woken up to the unwanted effects of stress.

As is often the case it has taken the negative economic implications of stress to spur employers and healthcare providers into action.

Sufferers no more have to fight against the labeling that has been normal with previous generations which took the essential premise that "stress, depression and anxiety are in the mind and are an indicator of weakness"

How stress can maintain and exacerbate CFS and Fibromyalgia

Stress, depression and anxiety are recognized to decelerate and in severe cases prevent recovery from infectious illnesses, and also this is partly where the confusion and malpractice surrounding the CFS/depression arena was instigated and fed by general practice and psychologists over the last few decades.

The dividing line between your two conditions can appear very near to the untrained eye, but on closer inspection CFS and Fibromyalgia do in fact have a totally unique subset of features when compared to depression of any type.

To further muddy the waters both CFS and depression cause physical symptoms which is often similar to each other on initial presentation and also there is crossover with the symptoms of various infectious illnesses of the rheumatic and auto-immune spectrum.

As i have mentioned several times in my text, establishment apathy and nonchalance about the true nature of CFS and Fibromyalgia have lead to it being sidelined as a subdivision of psychology and particularly depression.

Historically, when help is sought, sufferers are left feeling isolated and misunderstood to the extent that they'll begin to hide their symptoms, live in denial focused on other peoples reactions, and press on regardless while understating their illness.

Unfortunately, these typical reactions only serve to heighten overall stress levels which is precisely the opposite of the reaction needed for recuperation and so leads to another exacerbation and worsening of symptoms.

A lot of sufferers understandably avoid further professional help.

Some work very hard to find a cure and convince people that CFS/ME/Fibromyalgia is really a real illness. This contributes to sufferers experiencing a desperate urgency to recoup which will be met and fed by way of a cynical and irresponsible health industry full of fake cures, miracle pills and treatments.

All this while sufferers are feeling threatened, scared, angry, stigmatized and generally ill.

The strain cycle goes even higher, and the result, sufferers sink even lower.

There are times in a person life when it may become particularly difficult to actually be ill at all.

As an example as a carer of an ill relative, or perhaps a baby or small children, during a amount of remodeling phoenix or construction, the demands of work as primary revenue stream.

In the lack of people that will help practically and emotionally in these life scenarios it may be extremely tough to really say "STOP".

Old-fashioned medicine understood the importance of recuperation, rest, relaxation and contemplation as an important therapeutical element of overcoming serious illnesses and infections.

In the presence of a frightening variety of diseases which are now largely purged from society, and the absence of powerful antibiotics and antivirals, painkillers and analgesics, the body was largely left to its devices.

In Traditional medicine patients were often treated with herbal tonics and natural cures, these were incidentally quite effective but have now been largely forgotten, dismissed or dismantled and reproduced in synthetic form to provide the foundation of 75% of modern pharmaceuticals.

Nevertheless the primary strategy of the era involved long stretches of rest and recuperation.

By contrast, modern medicine and society place more importance on masking the symptoms, " keeping a stiff upper lip", "knocking it on the head" and "getting back on the job" as quickly as possible.

A "get well quick" protocol which unfortunately is totally at odds with a recuperative technique for illnesses such as CFS and fibromyalgia.

Learning to control and reduce stress is definitely an important and essential adjunct to any CFS and Fibromyalgia recovery strategy.

You will have to discover ways to recognize stress and how to short circuit the sequence of events leading to a "stress spiral".

Techniques of physical and psychological relaxation are necessary and incredibly effective.

Learning when to express NO is essential and avoiding all events and activities that place you under unnecessary stress or anxiety are essential in the short to medium term.

In my next article on this subject I am talking about techniques you can use effectively to short circuit and alleviate panic and anxiety in the home, in the car and at the workplace.
P&S:Whats your school supply list?

Going into 8th grade

4, 1 and a half 3 ring binders (one for each class)
2 packages, of notebook paper (total of 200 pages)
1 pack, of whole reinforcers
2-4 highlighters
2 packs, of blue or black ink pens
2 packs, of number 2 pencils
1 pack of colored pencils
1 pack of index cards
1, 1 subject spiral notebook
and a TI-83 plus OR TI-84 Plus graphing calculator (darn algebra)
:3.Sorry i broke your blue crayon
No idnt hav extras. We bought them bt ended up needig them thru the yr

I'll be shopping for a first grader and a 6th grader

Folders
Backpacks
Pencils
Pens
Pencil sharpners
Erasers
Rulers
Markers
Lined paper
Colored Pencils
2 large 3 ring binders
Lunchboxes
School clothes
Shoes
and Socks

Now take everything on that list and times it by 2.

^^ Cha-Ching! =( Yeah, needless to say, my kids aren't the only ones dreading the end of the summer.

The Spiral Dance