Peter T
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
There is so much to unpack in this question.
What is meant by stress?
- Psychological
- Emotional
- Physical
- Environmental
- Physiological
- etc.
A number of posts above respond by trying to define the physiological or hormonal responses to stress within the body. Though interesting, it seems this does not directly answer what is our experience, unless we are answering the question with the statement that stress is whatever triggers specific hormonal responses within our body. To me that seems to be putting the cart before the horse.
We have a set of stimuli and our response to them in terms of our ME symptoms, which I understand to be what @robertw27 is raising, and in parallel to this we have the science of the physiological mediation of people's response to potential stressors and how it may interact with the physiology of our condition which at our present level of knowledge requires a lot of speculation.
I think it is generally agreed that stress can be a trigger for PEM, but
- do we respond to stressors differently because of our illness, for example with hypersensitivity, I now find sound a potent cause of distress in a way that never happened pre onset;
- do different stressors trigger PEM equally for each individual [added - for example, when experiencing hypersensitivity to sound, builders across the road cutting stone can be much more stressful in the short term than say the death of a close relative];
- do different individuals with the condition respond differently to stress;
- is it even possible to compare different the impact of different forms of stress, as how do we decide if say the death of a close relative is more or less stressful than losing our main income;
- does our stress response vary with our condition, for example dealing with a practical issue such as my car having broken down might not be a problem on a good day, I just call the rescue service, but on a bad day it is completely overwhelming and retreating to bed is the only option;
- which in turn raises the question is a given event only stressful because of the consequences of our illness, for example dealing with the Inland Revenue on the phone, becomes overwhelmingly stressful because my cognitive difficulties that make any phone call difficult are so much worse when I have to try to think about complex ideas and try to remember specific details at the same time
- is our condition in itself a source of stress, either through its practical implications or through how it physically makes us feel or through any disruption of our brain physiology;
- does stress incrementally impact on our symptoms, or does it require reaching a sufficient level to trigger PEM;
- etc.
But also, my condition impacts on how I emotionally and psychologically react to potential stressors. Some stimuli, through such as hypersensitivity, become more inherently stressful because of our condition, but also because our reduced resources, be it available energy, physical fitness, cognitive processing capacity or finances, our condition can indirectly make dealing with many issues much more stressful, which in turn increases the chance of them triggering PEM.
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). A little bit of stress (something needs to get done now!) makes my symptoms better actually, but it's of no use in the long term off course, as that only makes me do too much and makes me worse the next days. It's the exertion that makes me worse, because if I'm only stressed about something, but don't act on it, it doesn't affect me.
