Stressed because I'm always sick, always sick because I'm stressed!

Nakeshia88

Bit of a vent...

I'm stressed because I pretty much constantly have headaches, fatigue, digestion issues and low immunity... however my doctor and nutritionist tell me I have all these issues because I'm stressed!

It's a catch 22 and I don't know what to do to fix it. Over the last few years I've done all I can think of doing to eliminate/reduce stress (and the resulting depression/anxiety) including improved my diet, quit drinking alcohol and smoking, seen psychologists/counselors/therapists, taken antidepressants (which I'm not weaning off), taken up yoga and meditation, increased exercise, DECREASED exercise as intensive exercise now leaves me beyond exhausted, tried Cognitive Behavior Therapy and let go of people/things that aren't doing me any good... yet I'm still apparently stressed all the time and plagued by constant headaches, fatigue and digestive issues! My vitamin and mineral levels, thyroid function, a recent MRI and tests for food allergies have all come back with normal results. There is nothing wrong with me physically other than apparently being stressed...

I have absolutely no idea what to do to deal with this anymore! Surely I don't have to live the rest of my life in this catch 22 situation?!

cally3225

Wow, that is a catch-22. You don't say how long or how often you've been doing meditation but maybe you could try to do it a bit more. You have made plenty of great changes in your life and some of them should be starting to give results eventually....just dont give up! Also maybe your antidepressant isn't the right one for you, or wrong dosage. It's worth checking in again with whichever doc prescribed them, and see about changing 'em up a bit.

MelodyandBarbells

Haha. Love your avatar. What do you do for fun? How about exercise? Open up your diary maybe could help?

dutchandkiwi

What I notice in your post that you mention that in the last few days you have tried everything you can think of and then you list a huge numbers of positive things that should help to reduce stress. From that I can only deduce that you tried them for one, or two days at most individually.

I can completly see that you would like to see instant results, but it won't work that way unfortunatly. Most stress reducers are not instant fixes, they need some time to get those stress levels down. Your system needs to relearn things and stop producing the assiciated hormones. It took time to get them up to where you have difficulty coping and it will take time to see the results of reduction.

When I started on my MFP journey I was dealing with loads of stress and could feel the negative influence on my health too. I had to give myself three months to reduce the stress through excersise as yoga was and is already part and parcel of my lifestyle. I still have loads of workstress, but I can feel that I am coping better and in part because now I can sleep better, It took time, patience and perseverance and that really was the hardest part of the journey

Nakeshia88

dutchandkiwi wrote: »

What I notice in your post that you mention that in the last few days you have tried everything you can think of and then you list a huge numbers of positive things that should help to reduce stress. From that I can only deduce that you tried them for one, or two days at most individually.

I can completly see that you would like to see instant results, but it won't work that way unfortunatly. Most stress reducers are not instant fixes, they need some time to get those stress levels down. Your system needs to relearn things and stop producing the assiciated hormones. It took time to get them up to where you have difficulty coping and it will take time to see the results of reduction.

When I started on my MFP journey I was dealing with loads of stress and could feel the negative influence on my health too. I had to give myself three months to reduce the stress through excersise as yoga was and is already part and parcel of my lifestyle. I still have loads of workstress, but I can feel that I am coping better and in part because now I can sleep better, It took time, patience and perseverance and that really was the hardest part of the journey

Hi dutchandkiwi, I've actually been doing and/or tried the things I've listed above for a few years now, not a few days! I'm no longer doing some as after 6 months they just weren't working for me, but I certainly have everything a good go.

Salkeela

You mention that exercise makes you feel worse. This is one of the problems with ME - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
(Sometimes inadequately called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The new proposed name is Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease).

I have this, and it does also affect young people as well as older folk like me. It is not an easy diagnosis as there is no treatment as yet, and we also have to cope with society's generalised disbelief that we are actually quite ill, and not just lazy...

I wrote a post about pacing (a strategy of not pushing on, but doing only what your body can handle without symptoms) here which you might find interesting: Just ME: Play up and Lay up not Boom and Bust

This link is also useful - it takes you to a pdf file which describes ME and it's symptoms etc: http://www.investinme.org/Documents/PDFdocuments/Canadian_ME_Overview_A4.pdf

I'm not saying you have this, but it might be something you and your doctor might want to consider.

cpp_happy

For me, overcoming extreme stress (about 3 years of it) included...
1 - time, for a month and a half after I decided to focus on me as well, all I did was sleep and lay on the couch (had to take a month and a half off work).
2 - eating the right foods for ME, I have celiac disease so for me this is gluten free and mostly vegetarian with plenty of healthy fats. Took years to figure out what made me feel good.
3 - seeing a really good naturopath who helped me understand which vitamins and minerals I needed (and this is always changing although I see her rarely now).
4 - Pilates/ yoga.
5 - understanding myself more and my environment/ how I interpret it. For me that meant understanding "highly sensitive people" (me) and learning to manage this ability!
6 - my support network and fitting in fun.
Some of these things might be right for you and some might not. But it is great that you are working on figuring out what works for YOU. And it is frustrating at times!!!!! I still get sick more than some people, but I also get sick less than others and I see improvements with passing time.
Keep at it!!!!!
Friend me if you want to chat a little more