The stress conversation - please share your opinion!

Hi everyone,

 

I'm interested in your opinions on stress and setbacks. A wide variety of stressors in our life is just plain and simple unavoidable, and then of course there's things we can do to keep our stress levels down andedogate things as much as possible. But honestly, as much as I'm so grateful for their work and dedication I find peoe like Dr. Jenn Leigh and even Geraldine Burns have planted seeds of fear that if you stress yourself out, or put yourself out there you can set yourself back in astronomical ways.

Do I believe stress can revv us up and make us temporarily feel worse or even throw us into a wave? Yes! But do I believe it can set us back for months and damage our healing? That is what I'm really stuck on.

What are your thoughts?

Stress is unavoidable and while we do know it can cause symptom severity upticks, I'm not sure I buy into it preventing or delaying recovery.  I've learned a lot about this process through the years but when I was going through it I was mostly ignorant about much of what is discussed today and I think I'm grateful for that ignorance. 

 

In 2007/2008 there weren't as many groups, organizations and online access to counselors and so-called authority figures so I wasn't exposed to as much as we are now but to tell you the truth, I didn't really seek it, I was focused inward on my suffering so I didn't hear much of what we hear today.

 

I also didn't know about protracted, we did have some on the forum who were taking longer to recover but I didn't understand this was a possibility, another thing I'm grateful for.  I didn't know about other medication setbacks, food sensitivities, histamine intolerance or any of hundreds of things people on the forum discuss now, I was in a word ignorant of the possibilities so I maybe I wasn't as afraid as I could have been.

 

I don't have any answers but I know the world is full of people who think they do.  But what I do know is that very little has changed in the area of research about our plight so we're left to come up with answers on our own and they may not always be the right or correct ones. 

No I do not believe stress sets us back or delays healing.  All the people I followed had to do there life because there was no option.  They recovered enough to move on inspite of it.  No I don’t buy into nothing a coach or person says because it’s their opinion.  Especially ones that tell you to eat a certain diet or take supplements.  I have tried and done it all and gave up all the crap at 24 months.  Eat healthy and get your blood work done.  See a doctor or dentist if need be.  Laying around waiting for a miracle is not reality.  Play an active part in your healing.  Stay off forums and do your life. 

 

When I go into waves, I don’t see any stress or other factors that precede it.  For me, I think it is just the way my nervous system is healing - non-linear.  My husband’s cancer returned of which he had to undergo surgery and treatments and the timing of all of this did not correlate to any setbacks or waves.  This is just me and I know everyone is unique.

I don't believe stress causes our waves.  I know I am in the minority with that opinion, but that has been my experience.  I also don't believe that stress impedes our recovery.    I think our waves are highly unpredictable and we like to think we can predict them or explain them by attributing them to stress, but that has not been my experience. 

 

Thank you everyone for your wise words and opinions! I love to get everyone's take on this and honestly it's helped ease my mind alot too.

 

Pam,

 

I couldn't agree with you more about ignorance. Prior to my setback, for the first 13m of withdrawal I spent very little time on the forums and was very unware of many of the issues that you talk about. Knowing them now has almost created another layer of anxiety and fear to try and navigate as well as just healing! I would love to go back to being a bit more uneducated! Haha

 

Thanks again everyone! I look forward to any other opinions on this topic!

No I do not believe stress sets us back or delays healing.  All the people I followed had to do there life because there was no option.  They recovered enough to move on inspite of it.  No I don’t buy into nothing a coach or person says because it’s their opinion.  Especially ones that tell you to eat a certain diet or take supplements.  I have tried and done it all and gave up all the crap at 24 months.  Eat healthy and get your blood work done.  See a doctor or dentist if need be.  Laying around waiting for a miracle is not reality.  Play an active part in your healing.  Stay off forums and do your life.

 

Agree with all of this. Recovery is not a passive process. I don’t understand the whole way for some unclear amount of time to pass to reach being “healed”. You have to be active in your own recovery.

 

The power of suggestion is strong especially in our vulnerable state. I was afraid to eat gluten and broccoli because of what I read online. None of that mattered. It’s grossly over exaggerated IMO.

It seems to be one of those things that HAS to be done, like exposure therapy yet feels like torment, to me it seems like there is no way around,  and just avoiding stress will keep us from learning to handle it even though it continues to send us into a spiral, I had a huge issue yesterday,  argument with my dad and it got really bad, today I didn't leave the bed and feel clammy and uncomfortable. It's a real journey through the fire.

It'smytime I know what you're talking about and being somebody who is currently still in a setback from antibiotics and having experienced a severe setback and what it is, and I know you have too(( I can tell you I feel that it's a combination of things that has to pile up on top of each other in order for a setback to occur, like in my situation it was severe stress, extended illness, beginning of covid pandemic, then antibiotics on top of it.. that's when a setback occurred so you just have to pace yourself with stress as long as it's not overly excessive and too prolonged I think you should be fine. You must be worried about work stress now, how is that going for you?

It'smytime I know what you're talking about and being somebody who is currently still in a setback from antibiotics and having experienced a severe setback and what it is, and I know you have too(( I can tell you I feel that it's a combination of things that has to pile up on top of each other in order for a setback to occur, like in my situation it was severe stress, extended illness, beginning of covid pandemic, then antibiotics on top of it.. that's when a setback occurred so you just have to pace yourself with stress as long as it's not overly excessive and too prolonged I think you should be fine. You must be worried about work stress now, how is that going for you?

 

Thank you for showing so much kindness and understanding. I never had this fear when I healed the first time, but it's the setback that's really caused me to worry and question anything and everything. I'm very blessed, I'm almost 9 months out and I'd say most days I'm 90% better but the thought of going backwards again is terrifying, as I'm sure you completely understand!!!

 

Work has been going really well but comes with its own set of drawbacks and fears. I'm in the healthcare field and work in a hospital so being around medications and such has been triggering, much more so then I ever expected but I'm getting use to it again. When I'm working and distratced I typically feel my best, like my old self, so that's a definite positive but there's still a huge amount of fear. Hopefully that fades with more time and exposure.

 

How are you doing??

Itsmytime, it's so wonderful that you were able to go back to work, and the healthcare field too!! that's awesome. I'm a former nurse myself, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back, because I'd really struggle with having to give patients any drugs right now, I've become very anti-drug through all of this. I can see how you are struggling, but at the same time you are helping people, i like to do that, so I don't know, i'm still debating what I"m going to do in the future. In the mean time I was finally able to get a job, a remote one, which is very flexible, and I can do whenever I'm feeling a little better. I am still very symptomatic, but definitely better than I was for the last 2 years. I'm no longer bedridden, and I'm very grateful for that. It's been the most scary experience of my life also, I can't believe i'm still alive actually, so being able to work keeps my mind off of things also. That's good, I don't know if i'll be able to keep up even with this easy job, because some weeks/days I still feel that I just can't do it, but we'll see what happens. And it's definitely a huge accomplishment for me after not being able to do anything at all but sit and cry all day for 4 years..

Anyways, I wish you all the luck out there, hope you stay healthy, that's the one thing I really worry about is catching something out there and having to take drugs for it, but then staying at home all the time, your immune system also goes down, so there's just no better solution here it seems like.

Lots of healing thoughts to you, hope you'll be at a 100% very soon