Triggers

[Jayne]

Has anyone else linked symptoms with emotional trauma? The more I am thinking back to when a lot of my symptoms (though not all) began it seems that they started in the mid 80's when I was going through an horrendously bad time, I know I had severe depression but never sought treatment. Just wondered whether that could trigger an autoimmune condition......
Jayne

[Joe S.]

I believe that Stress, emotional or physical can trigger an AI disease.

[JannaLee]

Absolutely!  YES YES YES.

Any kind of emotional stress puts me in a flare!

[genko_b]

Stress can allow diseases to take hold and can also allow flares of existing diseases. Research has been done that actually ranks the weight of various stresses. This can include good stress (weddings, births, graduations) as well as bad stress (death, divorce, job loss). They can predict the likelihood of coming down with a new disease based on the total number of points a person accumulates in a year. I'm trying to remember where I saw a chart of the stress values - it was several years ago.

That said, there needs to be an underlying tendency toward a particular condition such as autoimmune disease or even cancer in order for that to be what takes hold. But individual level of stress plus that underlying tendency can mean one person in a particular environment gets sick, and another does not.

Genko

[Scottietottie]

Well if stress causes illness - and it probably does - it's something my body's been doing all its life. I don't think I had one set of exams - all the way through school - when I was well. It couldn't simply be written of as hypochondria. The fevers and infections were real and plagued my school life but I was at a school I detested. i hadn't wanted to go there and never grew to like it. I think being ill was my way out.
Now I'm not saying it was SjS then - but maybe it layed the foundations.

Take care - Scottie 

[pudmott]

one word

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Pud

[Patze]

Yep, I too belief that stress done done me in!    I get a flare up of my symptoms when I'm under a lot of pressure.


Patze