People don’t just get Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or MS overnight. These diseases begin silently, often decades before diagnosis. ME/CFS doesn’t appear out of nowhere, either.
That there is an increased likelihood of coming down with ME/CFS or LC after an infection if you had prior mental health issues is a sign that the brain and nervous system have already been 'dysfunctional' and that there might have been 'structural' damage before, we just don't understand and have the capability to see it yet.
Medicine has a tendency to blame the mind when it doesn't understand what is going on mechanistically in the same way creationists will point towards god and how unknowable his ways are if they see no other out.
On the other hand, the kneejerk reaction by many to disregard the possibility that severe psychological (which by definition is always physical at some level) trauma could potentially influence future health outcomes is almost as ignorant as the BPS pundits' bullshit. The fact of the matter is that it's extremely difficult to untangle cause and effect in complex systems, especially for beings that think and reason linearly and by analogy.
The human body has many trillion cells, each of these cells boasts a billion or so chemical reactions every second. I think all of us, but the medical field in particular would be well advised to say 'we don't know yet' more often. Being less certain (of opinions and conceptual frameworks used) opens up mindspace for learning.
That there is an increased likelihood of coming down with ME/CFS or LC after an infection if you had prior mental health issues is a sign that the brain and nervous system have already been 'dysfunctional' and that there might have been 'structural' damage before, we just don't understand and have the capability to see it yet.
Medicine has a tendency to blame the mind when it doesn't understand what is going on mechanistically in the same way creationists will point towards god and how unknowable his ways are if they see no other out.
On the other hand, the kneejerk reaction by many to disregard the possibility that severe psychological (which by definition is always physical at some level) trauma could potentially influence future health outcomes is almost as ignorant as the BPS pundits' bullshit. The fact of the matter is that it's extremely difficult to untangle cause and effect in complex systems, especially for beings that think and reason linearly and by analogy.
The human body has many trillion cells, each of these cells boasts a billion or so chemical reactions every second. I think all of us, but the medical field in particular would be well advised to say 'we don't know yet' more often. Being less certain (of opinions and conceptual frameworks used) opens up mindspace for learning.
Last edited: