If you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, it is very likely you’ve been told by a doctor that there is no known cause. That is what happened to me. In 2003, I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura. (A rare condition where your immune system attacks the platelets in your blood). The very word “Idiopathic” literally means, “We have no idea why this happened.”
But I knew….I knew in my heart exactly what had happened. STRESS! Toxic Levels of Stress! At the time, I was going through a divorce. To say it was a “difficult time” would be an understatement. I was in therapy. My counselor said I was “depressed”. The truth is every time my phone would ring, my heart would race, my stomach would drop, and I couldn’t bring myself to answer it or check the messages. I was so filled with constant anxiety, I had a hard time eating and I lost a significant amount of weight. My family was worried about me. Just as I was finally putting the pieces back together, BAM! Autoimmune disease struck me!
I didn’t realize it then, but I had undergone a traumatic experience. I began to wonder if there was a link between trauma and autoimmune disease. Of course, not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will end up with an autoimmune disease. However, the more people I talked to who had been diagnosed with autoimmune illnesses also seemed to have experienced some sort of trauma….a sexual assault…loss of a spouse…loss of a child… I knew people who had suffered these traumas and struggled with various autoimmune conditions.
It turns out, I was on to something. Although current research doesn’t prove that trauma is a direct cause of autoimmune disease, it can be shown that extreme stress does cause physical changes in the body. Severe stress can raise the body’s cortisol levels which can cause inflammation and impair the immune system. The immune system can be so out of balance, it can be both underactive in some ways and overactive in other ways at the same time! It could potentially trigger the onset of an autoimmune condition you may be genetically predisposed to.
My ponderings cause me to wonder: If the domino effect of stress and trauma could be the root cause of an autoimmune disease…. Is it possible to reverse the physical condition by healing the trauma and managing our body’s response to the stress?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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