Why does ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia occur? Sometimes you reach a stage in your life when it is inconvenient, maybe even virtually impossible for you to have a breakdown.
So no matter how bad the pressure, and how much it affects you, you still cope and carry on regardless.
That is until your body, feeling robbed by the fact that you will not allow your mind to fix itself, rebels in such a way to make you take notice.
Eastern Society does not view he body as a singular working machine like we do in the west.
Instead they recognise that the body and mind function together and when the mind is being attacked it can have dire consequences to the body.
In this respect if you do not fix the mind, then you have no chance of being well in the body.
And it's this mind-body connection that's at the heart of these diseases.
What are Fibromyalgia, ME and CFS? Fibromyalgia means long term chronic pain.
ME/CFS is a chronic fatigue condition.
Both of these conditions are very difficult to specifically diagnose, and can leave the sufferer with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.
What are their origins? While no-one knows for sure, it seems that the body just holds its hands up one day and says "I have had enough! you (meaning the mind) are not listening to me, so I am going to make you hurt until you do.
" "I am also going to make you so tired you don't want to get out of bed.
I will also affect your sleep, your eating habits and anything else I feel like.
I will do this until you listen and make life easier on me!" The trouble is that on a conscious level it is unlikely that the body will listen, but instead try to find a clear diagnosis of what is wrong.
But Fibromyalgia and ME will not allow for a clear diagnosis, as so many symptoms keep coming up, that tests have to be done in every area.
What are the symptoms? The pain is unbearable and it leads to worry.
The worry leads to irrational thinking and more worry.
This can lead, as in my case, to panic attacks and fear that there is something very sinister wrong with you.
However this does not make these symptoms any less real, and the pain and tiredness are only part of it.
Everyone is individually affected in different ways.
Some people with ME have no pain, but are chronically ill, unable to get out of bed.
Their immune system becomes almost non existent, and in extreme cases can lead to life threatening illnesses.
It is strange to me in this society that we have not moved further forward.
In Chinese language there are very few descriptive words compared to our huge dialogue, and yet their understanding that the body and mind must collaborate, is so much more advanced than our own.
Is stress the hidden cause? I think when more doctors realise that in the society we live in these days, stress is a major factor.
Everyone wants so much from us.
Bills mount, kids expectations are never ending, companies and banks wanting every piece of you they can suck dry, trying to maintain standards expected by society and coping with relationships in a material world can be soul destroying.
During relaxation time in your own home you can get bombarded with sales calls and find you are having to battle the pushy salesperson who has been trained not to take no for an answer.
It's all exhausting, and yet it starts up every day, over and over again.
Even getting away from it all never really works these days.
You still have access to your mobile and the internet.
There is still the distant worry that the plane your may be a terrorist target.
You dare not let your children out your sight, and everything ends up costing so much more than you thought it would.
These are all normal problems, so God forbid that you have to endure worse.
The death of someone close, an abusive relationship, a bankruptcy, losing your job, your delinquent teenager intent in destroying their life, or watching someone close go through terminal illness.
It all compounds Mix these extreme stresses with your normal amount of stress and you have a concoction that can be extremely damaging.
Then you have to depend on your sub conscious to deal with it all, unaware of how your sub conscious really feels about the situation.
These processes you will not even be aware of until you get ill.
It could start with 'flu or a bad stomach bug, but what it leads to is unimaginable.
To make matters worse, as more and more tests come back normal, you question your own sanity.
There are times during your worst days when you do not care if you live or die.
I scared myself during one of these black spells.
I knew I would never kill myself as I could not inflict that on my family, however the hopelessness I felt was so extreme that I wanted to hurt myself to deflect from the illness.
I even planned to get hold of a frying pan and smash myself in the face with it, until I had blackened my eyes.
I could not even have gone downstairs to the kitchen let alone lift a frying pan, but I went through it all in my head.
At some point my rational side took control and I knew I was really struggling mentally with this illness.
When I had a 'good day' as we sufferers tend to call it, I went to the doctor and got depression pills.
What's it like to have ME/CFS? There are days when you cannot hold a book for long and you cannot sit and type on a computer.
You cannot concentrate on television and conversation is too much effort as your jaws ache.
These are the days when you feel that you will never get better.
You can be the world's most rational person, yet you cannot rationlise something that defeats you like this when your doctor's are telling you they cannot find anything wrong.
It's soul destroying.
Is there hope? Well I believe you.
I know how you feel because I felt it too, I have been where you may well be now.
I beat it, and so can you, with the help of the right techniques and the right people supporting you, and above all, the belief that you can do it.