I, too, am finding that the path to my healing is to accept myself and any limitations I may be experiencing. Removed toxic people and beliefs. Working on re-knowing my own wants, likes/dislikes, honoring my own needs first (while still being kind to others), not letting others overload me.
🤗 I am happy for you, and I am happy that I am not alone. It seems to me we are learning—dare I say, re-learning?—the same core lessons. It sucks. It's also beautiful. Good luck to you!
The Chobani people decided to add rapeseed oil to their oat milk for whatever reason, perhaps to improve texture and/or flavor. Rapeseed oil, like all edible oils, is calorie dense, so the Chobani oat milk has more calories.
Neuroinflammation is also present in depression and mental stress. It's the mental stress/activation that causes both neuroinflammation and depression/anxiety. There is similar neuroinflammation from learning...it's really just excessive brain activation, which causes the glial cells to be overactivated.
Yeh, excess inflammation is present in basically all disease, as a matter of fact. Inflammation in excess is probably not a great thing to have but I'm skeptical of how vital its role in sympomology is as well.
I was just thinking that if there were an FAQ on it, then it could help people recognize that they aren't alone in what they are experiencing. Not to replace threads such as these or give a stock solution.
I've added a section to the recovery faq "how long will it take to recover" which addresses the fluctuating nature of the illness, and that it will have ups and downs for no apparent reason.
"No apparent reason" is the key here. I think some sufferers tend to associate everything they do just before a downswing as being harmful or dangerous. This then leads them to feeling like every time they get worse, it was either avoidable or their fault. In reality, the downswing may have happened anyways.
ME/CFS is a physical illness. Breathwork and meditation literally cannot and will not cure ME/CFS. It can help aid symptoms, and obviously helps to reduce flare ups and crashes. But it legit cannot cure ME/CFS because ME/CFS is a physical illness - not a mental health issue.
There is not necessarily any obvious trigger. Sometimes, it's just apre po of nothing. CFS tends to get better, then worse, then better again over time, kind of like breathing.
My time on this subreddit has shown me that you need to practice self-acceptance now. So many people undergo this surgery, look objectively better afterwards, and continue to be plagued with body dysmorphia. You can't bank on this surgery solving your self-esteem because there's no guarantee it will, and unrealistic expectations are only setting yourself up for disappointment.
There's nothing more miserable than thinking about yourself all the time. There will always be another problem to fix, and it's so important to try to step outside of yourself before your world shrinks and the surgery is all you can think about.
Well there isn't really good evidence that "ME is a neurological disease". However there is overwhelming evidence that psychology influences physical processes in the body (otherwise the brain simply wouldn't work!) In terms of "physical structure in the brain", probably the best evidence is for how chronic stress reduces the size of the hippocampus:
The link posted was nothing to do with stress, it was discussing psychological health and quality of life of cancer survivors. CBT is widely used for this, and also to reduce *post* cancer fatigue.
I was simply curious if there was any solid evidence that stress (which, when people say stress, they generally mean psychosocial stress, but I understand there is a need to differentiate that from other stressors like exercise) impacts the cancer masses themselves, rather than just subjective outcomes such as pain and fatigue.
I pushed myself to study for college / software dev work / tutor at high school / participate in a religion I didn't believe in anymore (door to door as a Jehovah's Witness, not fun when you don't buy what you sell) for a few years, and I think it kinda broke me.
So I've had cfs for 20 years. Had a very stressful childhood which I hadn't realised the depths of at the time. People usually get cfs off the back of viruses, extremely stressful times of their life, vaccinations, university. There's lots of people who got it after a virus who will SWEAR it's a virus that they haven't found the root cause of yet. But people getting it from all these other sources wouldn't make sense then.
I hope this take becomes more mainstream. Neuroplasticity training is a legitimate treatment for many of the (cough cough increasingly common) chronic illnesses with stress as a risk factor. The human body is not supposed to exist in a perpetual state of hyper-vigilance.
You really made me realise something. I've been in 'perpetual hyper-vigilance' my whole life with a suidical mother I needed to save. I never came down off of it because she always used the threat of it to control me. Thank you for that.
I kind of think of it like this: We generally see our brains as "us". If there is an organ in our body that represents our "us"-ness the most, it's probably the brain. If you replace my brain with a new one (not cool bro), it's not really "me", anymore.
lol 2 carrots a day is fine. If you want glowing skin, nothing beats adequate hydration and sleep (both free). And stay out of the sun or wear sunscreen.
If a patient says something's wrong, then something's ipso facto wrong, and if a problem is ephemeral or stress-related then a placebo can sometimes improve QOL drastically. Placebos are a legit treatment modality and are evidence of how stress and anticipation influence our subjective experience.
Etho puts pumpkins into the Trick or Treat house, making it the first time I'm aware of that he's ever actually interacted with a holiday event on video. I wonder if he'll edit it out of his POV
Yeah, I think brain training is a bit overblown. My own thoughts are that you should concentrate more on things like reducing stress and increasing uplifting activities, and that's about it. I think the autonomic nervous system is a major factor, and doing that above (along with mild exercise) is the best you can do to promote healing, and normalise the ANS.
I found the "brain training" stuff to be useful, but in retrospect an ounce of real-life social support is worth a pound of some "mind-map thought-changing trauma-resolution" protocol. I used to try and meditate basically 24/7, but that ended up actually increasing stress.
It would work out really nicely if past exposure to pain made us less sensitive to future pain, like how my mom used to beseech me to just “toughen up!” But our brains don’t do that. Over time we get super efficient at feeling pain— I know, what a crappy thing to be efficient at!— meaning we’re quicker to feel it. It doesn’t mean the pain’s not real.
This is not entirely true, and pain tolerance can go into either direction. The important thing seems to be not just how often the stressor is encountered, but also whether or not the nervous system sees sufficient rest and comfort following exposure. Additionally, the presence of psychological stress during and after interaction with the pain stimulus seems to be important.
That underlies pretty much all comorbidities of ME/CFS. IBS, histamine reactions, fibromyalgia, food intolerances, chronic pain, even stuff like asthma and autoimmunity—itsy bitsy irritants balloon into an incommensurate response. The consistency of this pattern is quite interesting, actually
Take a deep breath. After a while of having ME/CFS, you stop noticing new symptoms and most sensations become familiar. It might take a while, but try to learn to accept these symptoms for what they are. See a doctor, and get some tests done if you'd like.
Yeah, well, it's right this time. It just took a while to get the memo (like... decades). God must use something like the old telegraph system that you see in old westerns. No, wait... that system was much faster. Maybe the old Pony Express? No, wait... that was much faster. Oh, well, forget it.
I, too, am finding that the path to my healing is to accept myself and any limitations I may be experiencing. Removed toxic people and beliefs. Working on re-knowing my own wants, likes/dislikes, honoring my own needs first (while still being kind to others), not letting others overload me.
🤗 I am happy for you, and I am happy that I am not alone. It seems to me we are learning—dare I say, re-learning?—the same core lessons. It sucks. It's also beautiful. Good luck to you!
The Chobani people decided to add rapeseed oil to their oat milk for whatever reason, perhaps to improve texture and/or flavor. Rapeseed oil, like all edible oils, is calorie dense, so the Chobani oat milk has more calories.
Like swartz said, depression can be a symptom of ME/CFS (possibly neuroinflammation related?)
Neuroinflammation is also present in depression and mental stress. It's the mental stress/activation that causes both neuroinflammation and depression/anxiety. There is similar neuroinflammation from learning...it's really just excessive brain activation, which causes the glial cells to be overactivated.
Yeh, excess inflammation is present in basically all disease, as a matter of fact. Inflammation in excess is probably not a great thing to have but I'm skeptical of how vital its role in sympomology is as well.
The problem is there is no evidence, its really down to patient experiences. All the comments so far in this thread are very helpful.
I was just thinking that if there were an FAQ on it, then it could help people recognize that they aren't alone in what they are experiencing. Not to replace threads such as these or give a stock solution.
I've added a section to the recovery faq "how long will it take to recover" which addresses the fluctuating nature of the illness, and that it will have ups and downs for no apparent reason.
"No apparent reason" is the key here. I think some sufferers tend to associate everything they do just before a downswing as being harmful or dangerous. This then leads them to feeling like every time they get worse, it was either avoidable or their fault. In reality, the downswing may have happened anyways.
ME/CFS is a physical illness. Breathwork and meditation literally cannot and will not cure ME/CFS. It can help aid symptoms, and obviously helps to reduce flare ups and crashes. But it legit cannot cure ME/CFS because ME/CFS is a physical illness - not a mental health issue.
There is not necessarily any obvious trigger. Sometimes, it's just apre po of nothing. CFS tends to get better, then worse, then better again over time, kind of like breathing.
My time on this subreddit has shown me that you need to practice self-acceptance now. So many people undergo this surgery, look objectively better afterwards, and continue to be plagued with body dysmorphia. You can't bank on this surgery solving your self-esteem because there's no guarantee it will, and unrealistic expectations are only setting yourself up for disappointment.
There's nothing more miserable than thinking about yourself all the time. There will always be another problem to fix, and it's so important to try to step outside of yourself before your world shrinks and the surgery is all you can think about.
Are you autistic / a HSP?
Well there isn't really good evidence that "ME is a neurological disease". However there is overwhelming evidence that psychology influences physical processes in the body (otherwise the brain simply wouldn't work!) In terms of "physical structure in the brain", probably the best evidence is for how chronic stress reduces the size of the hippocampus:
The link posted was nothing to do with stress, it was discussing psychological health and quality of life of cancer survivors. CBT is widely used for this, and also to reduce *post* cancer fatigue.
I was simply curious if there was any solid evidence that stress (which, when people say stress, they generally mean psychosocial stress, but I understand there is a need to differentiate that from other stressors like exercise) impacts the cancer masses themselves, rather than just subjective outcomes such as pain and fatigue.
The word "energy" means different things depending on context. You can have a ton of "energy"—calories—stored as fat, yet still have ME/CFS.
I pushed myself to study for college / software dev work / tutor at high school / participate in a religion I didn't believe in anymore (door to door as a Jehovah's Witness, not fun when you don't buy what you sell) for a few years, and I think it kinda broke me.
So I've had cfs for 20 years. Had a very stressful childhood which I hadn't realised the depths of at the time. People usually get cfs off the back of viruses, extremely stressful times of their life, vaccinations, university. There's lots of people who got it after a virus who will SWEAR it's a virus that they haven't found the root cause of yet. But people getting it from all these other sources wouldn't make sense then.
I hope this take becomes more mainstream. Neuroplasticity training is a legitimate treatment for many of the (cough cough increasingly common) chronic illnesses with stress as a risk factor. The human body is not supposed to exist in a perpetual state of hyper-vigilance.
You really made me realise something. I've been in 'perpetual hyper-vigilance' my whole life with a suidical mother I needed to save. I never came down off of it because she always used the threat of it to control me. Thank you for that.
I kind of think of it like this: We generally see our brains as "us". If there is an organ in our body that represents our "us"-ness the most, it's probably the brain. If you replace my brain with a new one (not cool bro), it's not really "me", anymore.
lol 2 carrots a day is fine. If you want glowing skin, nothing beats adequate hydration and sleep (both free). And stay out of the sun or wear sunscreen.
And deal with stress and anxiety if possible!
Are you implying that the short term success of a placebo is evidence that there is nothing wrong with the patient?
If a patient says something's wrong, then something's ipso facto wrong, and if a problem is ephemeral or stress-related then a placebo can sometimes improve QOL drastically. Placebos are a legit treatment modality and are evidence of how stress and anticipation influence our subjective experience.
Well, there are more and more of us with post infection illnesses. And now that the
It's not post-infection illness, it's post-anything illness. Post-pregnancy, post-trauma, post-lyme, post-covid, post-concussion, post-fluoroquinolones, post-surgery...
Etho puts pumpkins into the Trick or Treat house, making it the first time I'm aware of that he's ever actually interacted with a holiday event on video. I wonder if he'll edit it out of his POV
Pain is a social and anticipatory experience. That's likely why placebos can work so well—stop the anticipation, stop the pain.
Only downside is that many redstone updates can be very laggy
Yeah, I think brain training is a bit overblown. My own thoughts are that you should concentrate more on things like reducing stress and increasing uplifting activities, and that's about it. I think the autonomic nervous system is a major factor, and doing that above (along with mild exercise) is the best you can do to promote healing, and normalise the ANS.
I found the "brain training" stuff to be useful, but in retrospect an ounce of real-life social support is worth a pound of some "mind-map thought-changing trauma-resolution" protocol. I used to try and meditate basically 24/7, but that ended up actually increasing stress.
It would work out really nicely if past exposure to pain made us less sensitive to future pain, like how my mom used to beseech me to just “toughen up!” But our brains don’t do that. Over time we get super efficient at feeling pain— I know, what a crappy thing to be efficient at!— meaning we’re quicker to feel it. It doesn’t mean the pain’s not real.
This is not entirely true, and pain tolerance can go into either direction. The important thing seems to be not just how often the stressor is encountered, but also whether or not the nervous system sees sufficient rest and comfort following exposure. Additionally, the presence of psychological stress during and after interaction with the pain stimulus seems to be important.
Yes and no, in my non-doctor opinion.
That underlies pretty much all comorbidities of ME/CFS. IBS, histamine reactions, fibromyalgia, food intolerances, chronic pain, even stuff like asthma and autoimmunity—itsy bitsy irritants balloon into an incommensurate response. The consistency of this pattern is quite interesting, actually
Take a deep breath. After a while of having ME/CFS, you stop noticing new symptoms and most sensations become familiar. It might take a while, but try to learn to accept these symptoms for what they are. See a doctor, and get some tests done if you'd like.
Yeah, well, it's right this time. It just took a while to get the memo (like... decades). God must use something like the old telegraph system that you see in old westerns. No, wait... that system was much faster. Maybe the old Pony Express? No, wait... that was much faster. Oh, well, forget it.
He uses the Pony Express, but he's like, really far away
Charges by the DA are not the same as civil suits. Suing for damages isn't equivalent to reporting someone to the police
Successful Aging by David Levitin. It's about general well-being and longevity from the perspective of a neuroscientist
I would say it is likely just another symptom, as those types of things tend to reactivate when the immune system isn't working properly.
Similar thing happens with shingles. Pays an early hello when the body is stressed