New Poll - Physical or emotional Trauma

In a effort to help with our research study. I am curious to know if you feel your CFS/FMS was caused by physical or emotion trauma. Or you don't know. Please indicate when it occured and if you have CFS or FMS or both.

I my cause was emotional. I was fired for no reason and no warning after receiveg a $9,000.00 raise with no review. I went through a 7 year lawsuit and prevailed. During my lawsuit my daughter was killed and my father passed away.

I have been diagnosed with CFS and Fibromyalgia.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Tricia

In a effort to help with our research study. I am curious to know if you feel your CFS/FMS was caused by physical or emotion trauma. Or you don't know. Please indicate when it occured and if you have CFS or FMS or both.

I my cause was emotional. I was fired for no reason and no warning after receiveg a $9,000.00 raise with no review. I went through a 7 year lawsuit and prevailed. During my lawsuit my daughter was killed and my father passed away.

I have been diagnosed with CFS and Fibromyalgia.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Tricia

Full bore with emotional trauma.... My dad had suffered a major heart attack, had to have bypass surgery, meanwhile my husband had 2 strokes, then my dad had another heart attack at our house. Before he was released to come home...
my husband had a heart attack. It was just more than I could bear. I have been dx'd with fibro.
Love,
Debbie

Hi, Tricia:

I believe my CFS and FM was caused by both physical and emotional trauma. My specialist believes it was caused by the physical trauma of endometriosis. I also had a heart condition, that was finally diagnosed and corrected by surgery a year ago. On the emotional side, I was molested as a teenager, but didn't get into counseling until my 30's. I also lost my father whom I was very close to four and a half years ago. I was diagnosed with the endo two years ago, but believe I have had it since my teen years and was just diagnosed with CFS and FM a couple of months ago.

Sounds like you've been through a lot,too. Good luck with your research!

Ellen Comstock

So, I don't know if you want my reply here or not. Had very serious case of strep throat that wouldn't go away for 3 months. Took 4 rounds of anti-biotics. My earing was gone, from bacteria in them and gross stuff was coming out of my eyes. After it finally went away, leaving white spots on the back of my throat, I started with all the symptoms of FM/CFS and have been diagnosed with both. Also have had recurrent strep since the initial case and am advised to have my tonsils out now.

Regina

In 1983, I got married, moved, changed jobs and got sued all at the same time. My health started to deteriorate after that. To make matters worse, my new husband, whom I expected to be supportive, flew into a rage and accused me of faking. I had no idea what was wrong with me, and it took years to get a diagnosis. My husband raged at me for 18 years and finally left me in January, vowing to cut off my spousal support.

Hippo

I should have added illnesses.
Thank you all.

Tricia

and emotional stress made it worse. I have both CFS & FMS - I think the CFS came first but didn't get diagnosed until 2 yrs after back/neck injury when I wasn't recovering well & the ortho sent me to a rheumy. Sorry to hear of your loss...I also lost both parents and my job during that 2 yr period which sure didn't help matters.
Bless you.

from a car accident on June 11, 1999. I had *severe* whiplash, broken hand, 2 broken ribs, severe abrashions on lumbar area and lots of other bruising. I have not been right since. Of course the compensation I received from the accident is almost like a slap in the face and I even had an attorney.

I was dx'd with fibro, but am wondering if I also have Chronic Fatigue due to my extreme exhaustion.

Cin

...though it has been officially blamed on the trauma of my car sliding on a wet, oily road and being hit by a pick-up truck going 40 mph. in Dec. of 1984. Right after that my father died (he was no prize, but he was my last living close relative), then I came down with a cold while working at a job I disliked with people whose values I hated. As the cold started getting better, I came down with FMS.
Klutzo

The onset came out after a major car accident in 1993.

I also had years of bad relationships, crazy roommates, and just "bad luck" in general. It think this emotional trauma worsened my condition. My life has greatly improved over the past 5 years but my pain has gotten worse.

I've been dx with FM, but believe I have CF due to exhaustion.

-Shoobie

Sexually abused as a child, both parents alcoholic, multiple traumas emotionally as an adult, raped 2.5 yrs ago, got herpes from that, got married last Dec 1 to an incredible guy, he got a pacemaker/defibrillator on May 1 this yr, May 18 his defib went off 7 x, he got airlifted to Hosp, it went off 4 x the next am, then they discovered it had somehow accidentally gotten reset to defib at 125 instead of where is was supposed to be set at 185, we thought he was dying, he was in so much pain & it just kept going off, they never tell you that it can go off repeatedly, it was horrible, we were at the horse races & he was surrounded my all his close friends & hundreds of people, very traumatic. Apparantly the Dr on May 15 reset it, accidentally, no one will admit to that tho. They are sorry. I got fibro then, it was the last straw, Thank God I have a husband who loves me very much, I am just a non productive whiner. Looking for answers, working on a serious candida prob right now, next week something else, all this horrible stuff with me is wearing on my hubby tho, shortening his life no doubt, he has cardiomyopathy and the worst thing for him is stress, contributes to heart failure!

Jaci
[This Message was Edited on 09/06/2002]

I believe FMS/Collagen Disease and chronic pain syndrome are physical and for me stress and more stress perhaps aggravated a predisposition for these, in my case, autoimmune disorders to start "cropping" up.

I had autoimmune disorders of a lessor type as a child, youth, but nothing that detracted from my physical or mental capacities. When I had my son at 44, an obviously fouled up epidural, a father (my sons) who was very angry with me, and then no place really to go after I had William, I don't know how I even managed looking back. I had played at out of town job the evening before I had him, got my daughter who happened to be at the gig with some friends, told her friends to go on ahead because she needed to drive me home. That morning it was off to the hospital. When I was released, after a c-section, the father was still mad, and I had no one to help me so I could not get upstairs to the bedroom and William and I campted out downstairs until Tina took a hiatus and came to our aide. I played a July 4th gig and got a pinched cervical nerve and drove, with William of course, to the hospital in Austin after the job was over...received some pain relief but obviously could not take to the bed!

I think the combo of physical stress plus the mental fatigue of not sleeping for days and days on end caused the FMS to start up. By the time Will was two, I had bought this home (mortgage), which is in the place where Tina, my daughter and my oldest daughter live, plus my parents. I also became a follower of Christ three months from moving here and that made all the difference. I do believe if I had of had the support I needed, I could have stayed getting such a severe case of it all.

Now to run to the Tax Office and file a non-owner declaration and pay a lovely fee as I received a renewal notice on a car I gave my daughter and son-in-law who did not have the title changed!!! And I'll be hanged before they give me a hickie!!!! Love Lil'

I got mono in 97 which I think I partly got because of stress. I was 17 and my parents were getting divorced, my cousin had just died, my older sister was making all the wrong choices in her life, my dad and two brothers had just moved across the country, and we were selling the house that I grew up in. I never fully recovered from mono and shortly thereafter my serious boyfriend broke up with me, I graduated from high school (which was my only 'real' home at the time - I went to a boarding school), and moved all the way across the country. Since then it has been traumatic experience to traumatic experience. I feel I may have been able to "get over" this CFS if so much hadn't happened before, during, and after mono.

My theory is that we are all "feelers" - Our physical bodies are completely in tune with our emotional and mental bodies. And trauma just sets our bodies off whack. Just my own theory...

Karrot

I had gotten the flu in february. Which turned into bronchitis and an onset of asthma brought on by the illness. (I've never had asthma and it's gone now) after about 8 weeks of being ill from that. I never fully regained energy and became ill with my spleen and liver becoming enlarged, which I found out was from mono. And the doctor diagnosed me with chronic EBV. I am now being treated for CFS.
Dawn

I've had a bad car accident,a bad fall,I had my father pass away at a young age from cancer.I had a serious breast lump discovered during one of my pregnancys(which nothing could be done about untill after I gave birth).At that time I had a surgery done on my reproductive organs b/c of severe stage 4 dysplasia.So I think for me it was stress,anxiety,illness,greiving and just everything!!!
Tracey

I think. I was diagnosted with connective tissue disease and fibro at the same time. A year and a half ago. I am thinking the fibro was brought on because of the disease. But i dont really know.
Donna

Let's see if you can help to put this together. I was the caretaker of my Mother, who had been very ill for six years. In December 1998, I lifted an engine(65lbs) at my store and blew out two discs in my neck; when I saw the Doctor(actually his PA)I was diagnosed as to having torn my rotator cuff and was put on painkillers and muscle relaxers. The first week of January, Mom was hospitalized when I noticed extreme edema in her feet and she couldn't stay awake during a conversation. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and kidney failure. She stayed a week at the local hospital and of course I stayed with her, helping the nurses (she wouldn't eat for anyone but me) and ran the store by phone. During that time, I did alot of lifting and moving her, she was over 365 lbs because of her disease (she had a rare thing called Rheumetoid Lung), she had trouble breathing and was on steroids for those six years. The day came when I knew she was leaving us, but the Doctor insisted on having her flown down to Phoenix, where she was put on a respirator for three more weeks. When she died, I was in the store for the first time, having gone home the night before. Dad didn't do too well with his grief, so I was responsible for mopping up afterwards. A month later, a woman who spoke very little English came to the store asking him if he needed a housekeeper. I didn't trust her from the beginning. I was there at his house the day she took the house key out of her pocket and asked him if the house was hers now. In his moments of clarity, he would push her away, but she was able to worm her way into his home, along with her two sons. Her story was the usual, she came from Mexico to give her boys a better life. He married her six months to the day of the date of my Mother's death, basically hiding it from my brothers, my sister and I (although, I somehow was in the middle of it). In the meantime, I am seeing several Doctors trying to get a diagnosis for the pain while still working 6 days a week 9 hours a day and finally received the news of Disc Disease in July 1999. I went in for Epidurals in August, and since that time, have had symptoms of Fibromyalgia. Because of the pain, I couldn't work and tried to run the business by phone again. My Father's wife apparently convinced him that I was faking it so he fired me (mind you, I owned 51% of the stock in the Corporation). Because I was so ill, I didn't fight it; then in Sept.1999, Dad had a massive stroke and was completely paralyzed on his right side and couldn't speak. I kicked my "Stepmother", who by the way is 37 to my Dad's 67 and my 43, out of the store and took it back. The business was run into the ground by that time and I was paying the employees out of our own money, so I sold the business and retreated to my home, where I still am today, trying to manage my disease. Now, the question remains, what was the trigger. My Rheumy has an opinion, but I'd like to hear yours. God bless, Deena

p.s. Sorry for the book.

Mine I believe was caused by the emotional stress I went through when both my mother and sister were in a horrible car accident. My mother was killed instantly and my sister (who was driving) was in Intensive care for weeks and in bad shape, not expected to live. But she hung in there and came out in pretty decent shape after months of therapy. But through all of this my two brothers got in a family feud and put me in the middle not speaking for years and arguing over the estate $$$$. For months this fighting went on and I would toss and turn reliving all of this over and over in my mind and couldn't sleep. It was a real nightmare.Then in the midst of all this we found out my dear mother in law had lung cancer and not much chance of living. She has also died since. This all flaired up the fibro that had been in remission for years. So I think stress is a major factor in fibro!!
[This Message was Edited on 09/06/2002]

My CFIDS was brought on by working the night shift. I've heard of others whose bodies can't handle that kind of change but they usually go back to normal.......Not me! AMY