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jerica
USA
94 Posts |
 Posted - 03/02/2010 : 12:55:34
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I apologize if this is TMI, but I was talking about it to my therapist yesterday and thought it might be part of my puzzle. i was inspired to look into this because there's a post on the wiki by a person who was molested as a child and developed asthma and allergies and gained weight soon after.
When I was a little kid I had asthma. My mother says it started when I was about 4 or so and it lasted up til maybe 21, 22 something like that. It was very bad around the time I was 10-13 I'd say.
I also had intestinal problems that began very young and also peaked around age 11-13. I was chronically severely constipated and had impactions and all that. I was always taking laxatives, and a doc even had me drinking mineral oil. My mom was a nurse so she gave me enemas and all that (once I remember I was maybe 6 and she had my father hold me down while she did it and it was always painful). She would belittle me for not "coperating", too. I hated her so much then, too much hate for a kid but there it was. Trauma like whoa.
My dad was a pedophile and schizophrenic though we didn't really figure that out til later. I was reading about how childhood illnesses can be linked to trauma and sexual abuse. I have no clear evidence that I was ever sexually abused as a little kid, but I also was also sexualized at about age 6 or so and had sexually masochistic thoughts from that age up. (My mom had told me later that my father had been something of a sadist/masochist and I know for a fact he watched BDSM type movies because I heard them on in the living room at night when I was in my room -- women crying and being hit, etc.)
My therapist and I talked about it and she wondered if maybe I'd either been molested somehow or witnessed something I shouldn't have. She said that when you're very little you can forget these things as a survival mechanism because you're dependent on your caregivers no matter what they do pretty much.
So to delve into the nasty ugly childhood stuff, do you think that illness such as severe chronic constipation and asthma could have in any way be TMS type illnesses? The idea that constipation is a "holding in" of things and asthma is an inability to breathe (both indicating restriction and pain and stifling instead of freedom and ease) make me wonder.
This stuff is all pretty gross and upsetting so I'm sorry if it's TMI but at this point I am desperate for any kind of answers so I will say what has to be said.
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Edited by - jerica on 03/02/2010 12:57:30 |
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Gibbon
United Kingdom
138 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2010 : 15:32:01
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There's this study which shows that childhood trauma has a significant effect on chronic pain as an adult:
quote:
Childhood psychological trauma correlates with unsuccessful lumbar spine surgery
Schofferman J et al.
Spine 1992 Jun; Vol. 17(6 Suppl):S138-44
Summary
In a retrospective study of 86 patients who underwent lumbar spine surgery, patients who had three or more of a possible five serious childhood psychological traumas (risk factors) had an 85% likelihood of an unsuccessful surgical outcome. Conversely, in patients with a poor surgical outcome, the incidence of these traumas was 75%. In the group of 19 patients with no risk factors, there was only a 5% incidence of failure. This study shows that a highly significant correlation exists between unsuccessful lumbar spine surgery and a history of childhood traumas. Although recognition of predictors for unsuccessful outcome can be useful in avoiding surgery in patients whose indications for surgery are borderline, the greater challenge is to help the patient who, despite being at high psychological risk for negative outcome, has severe spinal pathology that will likely require surgery. In such cases, psychiatric treatment is critical. In the group of 19 patients with no risk factors, single-level laminectomies and discectomies were performed on 6 patients. The other 13 cases were complex, involving a combination of repeat surgeries (n = 4) fusions (n = 3), and/or multilevel laminectomies and discectomies (n = 11). (source)
(from the wiki - http://tmswiki.wetpaint.com/page/Annotated+Bibliography)
Check out the TMS website: www.rsi-backpain.co.uk |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 03/02/2010 : 15:50:13
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Childhood trauma can be a major ingredient of TMS.
I personally believe chronic constipation and asthma could be TMS symptoms. One of the mechanisms used by the brain to induce systems may include manipulation of the immune system and other autonomic processes. This could also explain conflicting scientific studies. For example, it is now believed the h.plyori bacteria is responsible for stomach ulcers. However, h.plyori exists in people with no ulcers. Perhaps it is not the bacteria itself, but that the brain has tweaked the immune system such that the stomach is more susceptible to be harmed by it.
Our upbringing, and especially our parental relationships, is key to the development of personality traits that are prone to TMS. With the help of a therapist you really need to "dig through the dirt" and try to uncover what emotions you might have been repressing throughout your life. |
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Childhood illness, sexual abuse connection?
