thousandwords53

Hello everyone!

Perhaps there already is a thread out there on the subject...but I am curious if any one here has any info/resources on health being affected by stress/extreme/prolonged or things of that nature?

I have had some seemingly small but odd health related symptoms pop up over the years and recently and have noticed in retrospect that external factors could have set me off internally.

Recently I made a doctor appointment for phantom symptoms that showed nothing wrong in the labs, and this isn't the first time!

OpheliaKatz

I just googled "prolonged stress causes health issues" and got 1,320,000 results. Stress isn't just in your head. It causes hormonal changes, raises your cortisol and adrenaline and those things can eventually lead to chronic health problems or death.

If you want to know about how being with an addict really messed me up, send me a private message and I'll tell you all about my health.

Generally, you can come back from most things if you make your health a priority.

FireSprite

Yes!

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...ical-part.html (Recovery: the physical part)

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...alcoholic.html (Physical illness by living with an alcoholic?)

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...i-recover.html (anxiety - worsening physical symptoms as I recover)

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...al-health.html (Does Their Alcoholism Effect Our Physical Health?)

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...al-health.html (Physical health)

Hope this helps!!

thousandwords53

Thank you!!!!!
The headline- symptoms getting worse as I recover is exactly what I needed!

Bernadette

Hi tousandwords,
3 books I like on this subject
"When the Body Says No" by Gabor Mate
"The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van der Kolk
"Heal Your Body" by Louise Hay.

I learned so much from these books.
Trust your body and your feelings. Any activity (not drugs or alcohol obviously) that reduces stress also reduces the speed and efficiency of disease processes.

Yoga
Exercise
Time in Nature
Journaling
Meditation
Eating clean and light
You know the list!!

Many docs, even psych docs do not often consider stress or trauma specifically enough when evaluating a pt's symptoms. We ourselves often have to cobble together the whole picture based on diagnostic info from docs and our own self-knowledge.

Peace,
B.

FireSprite

Every one of these is excellent. Great suggestion!!!

Wamama48

The Body Keeps the Score. The title itself says it all! Its a very in depth look at the effects of trauma, so if your looking for an easy explanation, it might not fit the bill. But if your looking to dig in deep, this book does that.

TropicalWinter

The further out I am, the more I'm realizing just how much stress and trauma I've been through, not just from my STBXAH, but my upbringing and my own severe sleep deprivation (which I'm now getting treatment for, and it's made a world of difference).

I'm working on learning how to take care of myself, be gentle with myself, and nourish myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. I live in a larger body, so I also grapple with the expectation to lose weight, but I know that attempts at intentional weight loss will just add to my stress, not decrease it, so radical body acceptance and body image work is something I need to do as well.

This is hard stuff.

OpheliaKatz

Thanks for reminding me of Gabor Mate. I forgot to link this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6IL8WVyMMs

I found this extremely useful. Hope it helps someone else too.

Firesprite, Bernadette, thanks.

OpheliaKatz

Here's a little anecdote about the mind-body connection.

I had been too busy to exercise for two weeks, and I was also getting flashbacks, starting to feel depressed, lethargic, and my back was hurting a lot. I also stopped sleeping well. It would take forever to fall asleep, and I would wake up feeling exhausted no matter how much I slept. I was also craving sugar all the time.

So yesterday I hit the gym for an hour and really pushed myself. I really hated it while I was doing it. I hate being sweaty. I hate gym clothes. I hate smelly locker rooms and I also hate not being at the gym for exercise because that would mean I'd be running, and I hate getting a runner's sunburn and getting eaten alive by blood-sucking insects. In case it isn't clear: I hate exercise generally.

Anyway, I got on the rowing machine and started rowing as if I was being chased by starving carpet sharks... and the harder I rowed, the more I felt as if my body was letting go of a feeling... like anger... or fear. For clarity: a starving carpet shark is an imaginary shark that chases you from the grungy gym carpet as you row, and it's hungry so you'd better row fast. After I got home and had a shower, I felt 90 times better than I did before I went to the gym. My mood was better than when I took St John's Wort... and definitely better than when I was on anti-depressants, which made me feel flat. My back hurt less and was less tight. My sugar cravings were less intense. I think, I tend to carry a lot of my negative emotions in my spine and my muscles get affected.

It is unfortunate that not enough doctors understand the mind-body connection, but I do think it's becoming more accepted. Really, for me, the best thing for managing my trauma is good sleep, food, exercise, massage, and a little bit of talk therapy (but not so much that I start ruminating, poor Yorick... I knew him once).

Sleepyhollo

I used to be a good sleeper and that went out the door after I had been with RAH for a while. He was a crappy sleeper and up several times a night and on call nights that was sometimes worse. Looking back at it I think his drinking and other behaviors were already affecting me except I didn’t realize it. My slee has gone to complete crap since he went to rehab. 1.5 years ago, he however is sleeping much better these days.
I walk/run 6 miles every school day and I really need that. I hate gyms. I also try to play tennis 1-2 x a week.
My therapist keep feeling me that stress releases a bunch of bad chemicals in your body (cortisol is one of them) and they are hard to get rid of if you’re constantly in a high anxiety state. Exercise does help with that.
Stress/anxiety also can cause physical symptoms. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago I would get periods of vertigo and felt like I couldn’t really take a deep breat. Then I got numbness around my mouth one day and ended up going to the ER. I don’t know if the vertigo was related to anxiety (I wasn’t really aware of any significant anxiety at that point but I think it was definitely present already ) but the numbness and breathing was definitely a result of anxiety over the vertigo (I ah dalready diagnoed myself with a brain tumor ��...)
So yes, stress and anxiety definitely has an effect on the physical well being as does depression. Exercise will help that.
I also think that most doctors are very aware of this but most patients just won’t do it or believe it. Just like when we tell people they need to work on weight loss and how exercise is part of that, more often than not they cannot be bothered, at least not with the people I deal with. More than likely they know the benefit but have every excuse to not do it. That also goes for eating healthier btw. Unless poeple are motivated and willing to do it, no doctor is going to be able to convince them otherwise...

Bernadette

"...but most patients just won’t do it or believe it. Just like when we tell people they need to work on weight loss and how exercise is part of that, more often than not they cannot be bothered, at least not with the people I deal with. More than likely they know the benefit but have every excuse to not do it. That also goes for eating healthier btw. Unless poeple are motivated and willing to do it, no doctor is going to be able to convince them otherwise..."

Right, so the kicker is how can people motivate themselves? It is so very hard, especially the way we live in the US anyway. I am lucky to live in a large urban area where cars and parking are a burden, so public transport is plentiful and necessary (which means a person spends a good deal of time and energy having to walk). Also there is a lot of good food and a culture of eating well (at least a general consciousness about what healthy food really is).

And yet we all seem to struggle with the same issues of over eating, bad eating, not getting enough exercise. So many jobs now don't require much caloric effort other than banging on the computer keys and sitting down at a desk. So when I imagine that some people live in areas where they do not have access to good food, cannot afford good food, do not have to walk or can't walk to basic services but drive, park, drive home again, I think about how oppressive and hard that is on the body.

Constant availability of cheap sugary foods is also a real pressure and problem here in the US. I think the more we learn to love and truly accept ourselves the more we might be motivated to treat our bodies better. I don't know! Everyone is different and driven by different rewards or demons. It feels like there are so many barriers to complete good health, barriers erected mostly by companies making a profit on bad choices. But, yes, we do still have a choice.

The energy required to "choose" and execute that choice should not be underestimated though. When I read the books on health and the body I am filled with pity AND compassion for the many many traumas and stresses and negative self-talk that many of us are carrying, that make it that much harder for us to get motivated and execute a plan. What an outside observer judges as "laziness" or "unwillingness" may in fact have evolved as a way to survive and not utterly collapse from stress.

My wish for all of us today is to do one kind and healthy thing for ourselves: I had oatmeal for breakfast!! LOL. But this dang cold weather persists in the northeast and I just cannot get motivated to run right now.....meh...but I will walk a mile. One mile is better than no mile! It's hard to change, but even baby steps move us toward our goals.
Peace,
B.

mylifeismine

Thank you Thousand for this post!!

Thank you Fire Sprite for all the links- I've read them all. Gabor Mate is
a genius and I want to read/watch all his material. Listening to him-
he has the answer to long standing questions I have had about what
dysfunction/trauma does to a child. He puts puts the puzzle together.
Listening to him I get the feeling I will get the answers/understanding
that I have been longing for. Some questions about my FOO,
some from my marriage, some from my work with patients
at a well known cancer center. He is a game changer for me.

So thank you very much

OpheliaKatz

I've had two types of doctors: one who prescribed exercise and gardening instead of anti-depressants, and a bunch of others who just grunt and fill out a prescription. I took all the pills and nothing changed, so I kept going back to the one who told me to garden, because at least she makes eye contact with you.

It's really hard to get people to change their bad habits because on some level, the our bad habits reward us. So it becomes a compulsion, an addiction. I watched a film about the perils of sugar with someone who, after the film ended, said, "this film makes me want pie." If you say to someone: change your diet and exercise to lose weight and improve your mood, they might just agree ("yes, sugar is bad... but: pie!") and then go off and Netflix a' la mode, because change scares them. One has to really, really want it badly.

If I forget to exercise and pull weeds for a week, my brain goes to some really dark places. Those pies are ten minute slices of happiness for days of misery.

Great.

...

Now I want...

pie.

I'm going to walk it off.

OpheliaKatz

It is unconscionable that if you want a decent-paying job these days, you are required to be seated in an unnatural position for hours on end, which eventually sacrifices your health and years of your life. If you can't get one of these "good" jobs, you're likely chasing gig after gig or working really strange hours on your feet and that wears you down too... and then you struggle to afford the basic necessities.