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It isn't just that the suffering from mental illness is real, it causes very real physical health issues and deeply disrupts your body's hormonal makeup via the
by perseusmandate 7y ago
It isn't just that the suffering from mental illness is real, it causes very real physical health issues and deeply disrupts your body's hormonal makeup via the HPA axis.
The strict delineation between physiological and psychological illnesses is mostly a Western construct and the unfortunate effect is that the CFS community has an obsession with proving that it is a 100% physical illness without any mental component. It shouldn't be necessary for them to assert that for them to be taken seriously. The same can be said of chronic Lyme, Fibromyalgia, IBS, many kinds of chronic pain
One fascinating thing is that there are people with non-physiological dissociative seizures (classified as a DSM mental illness). This population is actually much less likely to admit that their mental wellbeing has an effect on the incidence of these seizures than patients with conventional ones
- mises 7y agoCareful not to swing too far the other way. In situations where physical treatments are an option (even if they would only help, not cure), it is important not to give such treatments if it is a mental illness as treatments have risks. If it is mental, mental illness treatment might actually help.
- perseusmandate 7y agoIf you look at the CFS forums they are trying all kinds of crazy experimental therapies, many of which have side-effects and few of which have any effects Another interesting correlary is the pelvic floor dysfunction world. It is mostly a stress based illness which is best addressed by mental health treatment and relaxation but some people have gotten tons of invasive surgeries with reason to think they would even be helpful