posted
Informal Poll Hello All How many of you believe your Lyme disease was triggered or exacerbated by some stressor in your life ? Emotional physical etc?
Thanks very much
Posts: 261 | From California | Registered: Sep 2017
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Bartenderbonnie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 49177
posted
I can't say my illness started due to stress.
What I can say is I was at a point in my life where I would wonder "Is this all there is to life ? "
Then whammy, the life I was so bored with, was gone. Tough lesson indeed.
Posts: 2977 | From Florida | Registered: Nov 2016
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posted
Absolutely, both physical and emotional. While the pot was simmering on the stove, so to speak, we had a business lawsuit (turned out fine but long and drawn out and stressful) and I increased my running training for half marathons. I think it was more the physical that did me in.
At one point, about 8 months after stopping running because I was feeling so bad, I went into a spontaneous remission. I still did not know it was lyme at this time. I ended up relapsing 4 months later and it was a downhill slide from there.
Posts: 478 | From Third Coast | Registered: Feb 2011
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posted
multiple bites as a child/teenager. Triggered in my early 30's after extreme stress from a break-up, and subsequent taking poor care of myself/bad choices.
Posts: 857 | From northern california | Registered: Dec 2009
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randibear
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
Member # 11290
posted
when home life started going south, so did my health. have yet to recover...
-------------------- do not look back when the only course is forward Posts: 12262 | From texas | Registered: Mar 2007
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posted
I think that is true of any illness .. stress can set it off.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Haley
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 22008
posted
No — mine was not triggered by stress. I was bitten by a tick and became violently ill (I didn’t know it was a tick at the time).
I continued to go down hill for two years until on my death bed... was finally diagnosed with Lyme. No stress at all just physically illness.
Posts: 2232 | From USA | Registered: Aug 2009
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posted
stress definitly....immune system goes down
-------------------- been there done that! Posts: 93 | From ny | Registered: Mar 2014
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Ditto to Haley's reply:
"No (not stress) — mine was not triggered by stress. I was bitten by a tick and became violently ill"
Super Ditto. And, I tried and tried to ignore it and work harder and harder to just function but then came a time when there was "the last straw" -- some might say that a stressor triggered but I've since learned that - no - my body just could no longer ignore how sick I was. My body was broken.
And, in all fairness, the original question does stipulate "triggered or exacerbated by" stress -- does not say caused by.
As for the question of stress in "lyme world" in every doctors' visit I ever had . . .
, I cringe every time I see someone ask if stress causes lyme - or any physical ill. After decades of being dismissed I would like to see this question dismissed, too. Too many headlines and articles by the IDSA link the inability of the patient to stress issues.
It's not really the stress, it's that the body is in a diseased state and so the body cannot handle the load of toxic hormones created by stress . . . and then the full on, the adrenal & immune systems go kaput and take other systems with them.
Lyme / TBD really clobber the adrenals, the HPA-axis, the liver. This creates a situation where a body simply cannot take on more stress or it all erupts.
A car accident, even a twisted ankle . . . fluorescent lights, scents, pollution . . . or even emotional interactions that create strong emotions all require an adrenal system to work properly. "Being present" in a relationship requires a strong adrenal system so, sure emotional factors are included.
Still . . .
I get so very tired of hearing, reading that "stress" causes illness as it is then somehow implied that if someone were just of stronger character or will power, they should not have become ill.
With lyme, I am certain - absolutely certain - that stress cannot cause lyme disease. Stress cannot cause any disease. Not when "stress" implies someone is just not "strong" enough. And that's what is usually implies so I'd like to just banish that connection.
However, whatever stressors of life are put onto a body that is already diseased or has some kind(s) of organ or system dysfunction, well, then the body can no longer keep the infections or conditions hidden and it becomes much more acute.
We have to address it then - as a physical, physiological, neurological, immune system matter that was already there just not yet acknowledged.
Stress - er, rather use the word "demands" whether physical or life connected that take any kind of over the top burden - as I see it - are not the cause but the trigger that opens our eyes to what has been ignored or hidden.
I'd like to see more understanding in the world of just what the endocrine system (adrenal, HPA-axis) actually do for us as we aim to meet all kinds of physical and emotional demands.
To me, trading out "stress" for terms that bring awareness to the endocrine system & what we humans require in terms of physical and emotional nourishing and nurturing, that would a soothing balm for the language of illness, I think.
I've seen headlines that say the "stress" of pollution (whether water, air, even sound) causes illness. Well, it's not stress it's the addition & overload of toxicity in various forms.
"Stress" is a slippery term that implies we should be able to handle outlandish expectations - of many different types.
"Stress" does not so much send toxic cortisol levels soaring, in terms of causing caustic reaction in our blood vessels, etc. -- it's the endocrine breakdown that does this, and the specific causes of that endocrine breakdown.
Yes, this happens but let's call that "stress" what it is - though there can be many causes for the breakdown it's time medicine started to see the big picture.
"Stress" has been such a throw away word that has enabled the medical system to create throw away patients. -
[ 05-02-2018, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: Keebler ]
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
This new book has many accounts of lyme patients who were either told by doctors or judged themselves as having "just too much stress" sort of thing. Excellent book that shines an important light.
Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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