Posted by Ilene on October 12, 2003, at 20:52:27
Question: I know there are babblers who have mood and/or anxiety disorders along w/ cfs or fibromyalgia. Is there anything that works for you? Ultram?
Long explanation:
I have both a depressive disorder (unipolar? bipolar?) and chronic fatigue syndrome. The cfs fits the case definition published by the CDC, and is (or was) recurrent, and triggered by heat and exertion. I say "was" because I experienced it as a recurring flu, not as fatigue, per se, and I held it at bay for a couple of years by restricting my activities. I've been under a great deal of stress since Spring (oh yeah, that's how I discovered I have GAD) and now the stress is triggering my episodes.
(The heat/exertion thing is called neurally mediated hypotension or NMH, and if you mention it to a doc you are likely to get the IAIYH look. You know what I mean. NMH *is* in the medical literature, though. )
Anyway, my life is filled with STRESS and there is hardly anything I can do about it--I've been taking klonopin off and on, but it's not enough, and even yoga makes me anxious.
I just went through the worst cfs/depressive episode of my life. I would have killed myself if it weren't for my kids. It was partly intense muscle aches and partly deep despair. I feel better now, sort of. I have a massive headache, but I can move around pretty well and focus my attention and think rationally, I think. (I know that sounds strange to anyone who hasn't been there.)
(CFS didn't make me suicidal before. I felt *bad*, but not bad enough to check out right then and there. I'm not sure why it was so intense, but my entire life is sliding down. Another strange thing is that the intense suicidality just *stopped* over a period of a few minutes after days of agony. Am I crazy or what?)
Ilene
poster:Ilene
thread:268785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031010/msgs/268785.html