I so often hear about CFS being caused by stress and yet in 70% of cases, it is viral in onset. I have read that stess can weaken the immune sytem, and yet whilst I agree, I know my weakened immune system began when I was a child. I had a happy childhood and am from a privledged background. I have also read that CFS is more common in people who have been sexually abused (this is also common in other illnesses) but I know people who have been sexually abused and are the healthiest people I now. (some have suffered also).

I also know people who have had severe stress in their lives, and who do not have CFS or any other illness.

I can't help but think, that all this stress talk is why the government is so slow at funding research into CFS. Maybe, this explains the negative attitude to CFS that we see in some doctors. The press will print what they like, and they often portray it as a stress related illness, no matter what the person being interviewed said.

Are ME and CFS two different illnesses, as suggested by some, one precipitated by a virus/toxin/bacteria, the other, emotional stress related? Whatever the reason, people with CFS deserve better than they are getting now.

I became sick at a happy time in my life, with a 'flu type illness. I have had some major stressful events in my life (not as stressful as some people- I have not mourned a child) and I have not got CFS during these times.

We have to be careful about what we mean by stress or stressors. An elastic band stretched to its limit is stressed, and often breaks or looses elacticity, and sometimes it goes back to normal.

Do we mean Physical, (overwork, illness, operations etc)Mental, or Emotional stress?

Having CFS is stressful, are we confusing the issue? Everybody has some stress in their lives, yet only a small percent end up with CFS. I know some really anxious people who do not have CFS and I have friends that suffer from depression, I know that whilst their are some similar symptoms, they are different.

Is cancer stress related, some believe it is and others don't. We know that M.S. relapses can be stress and viral related, but would we readily say that M.S. is caused by stress? Are heart attacks and high blood pressure stress induced? Are stomach ulcers caused by stress or in fact a bacteria?

I think if CFS was caused by stress, it would be easier to get over it. Excercise is great for stress relief, but not for people with CFS.
I think we need to be careful when we say CFS is caused by stress, personally I have not found the connection. I have never known what stress was until I became ill with CFS.

Once after being sick for 8 months with CFS I went into remission, during a stressful event.

I had been to Moomba and had a fight with my husband, my condition worsened due to the Mommba event, and I became depressed due to the fight with my husband, I layed on the couch for 3 days, and then over the next week I became well. (99%). It did however, return with another virus some years later, but not when mymother in-law died, or my son left home, or the church split. No, it came at an unexpected and good time in my life.

My friend, a woman in her 70' has CFS, after driving thorugh the black spur, she took a funny turn, you could say this was stress induced (not that she would agree) but her symptoms included sore throat and swollen glands, not other flu/viral like symptoms.

EMERGE ME/CFS VIC. WINTER 2000 P.17
"Absolutely stress is a player in CFS and it's normal to see that in illnesses," said Dr.Klimas. Evengard she reported, said at the last AACFS conference that 67% of ME/CFS patients had a major stressful event in their lives six months before onset of their illness. What researchers did not report was that is that a healthy control group would show exactly the same numbers!" "So, yes stress makes it worse, but it is not a triggering factor." she emphasised. And there were a lot of ME/CFS subjects found in that same study that had no sixth month "stressful event."

I think this sums it up, don't you?

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