1. Medical post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
I personally know this is not the case for me in these scenarios, even if I do have some avoidance issues with doctors. Yet, I think it’s super important to talk about this concept as plenty of individuals experience this.
Some folks have had a traumatic medical experience. This can range from being traumatized by a serious illness or injury, abuses perpetrated by medical staff, a difficult trip to the ER and so forth. If a person develops PTSD after an experience like that, they may avoid medical care, or if they have no choice but to seek it, it can be a trigger.
There are ways to work on this, such as trauma therapy, exposure therapy, medications, and having open conversations with your providers. It may also be helpful to seek out practitioners who are aware of trauma-informed care.
2. Medications
At the best of times when it comes to mental illness, it is important to keep on top of your medications. Personally, I have to keep an eye out for returning symptoms, which usually means my meds need a tweak. It’s also important to be aware of interactions, side effects, timing, and so on. While I again don’t necessarily see a link in my recent situations, I’m willing to accept this could be playing a small part. Perhaps the temporary meds are having an effect on my regular psych ones. Maybe I’m not being as vigilant about taking my pills in their prescribed time frame.
Talk with your pharmacist if you aren’t sure about what effect adding in something new might have on your regular meds. I did ask in both the above scenarios and was told there wouldn’t be any interference. As to my other point, consider downloading a medication reminder. I use one called Round. You can also keep it even simpler by adding an alarm to your watch or phone.
3. Emotional flashbacks
This is one I’m leaning heavily toward as to my explanation of what’s going on in my case. This is a somewhat newer concept, so I’ll take a moment to share what it’s all about.
Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is an emerging diagnosis, not quite in the North American diagnostic manual just yet. As you may have guessed, it’s similar to PTSD but is more “complex” due to the trauma has been long-standing. I experience C-PTSD symptoms, though depending on if I’m up for explaining it, I’ll just say I experience PTSD to make it easier for myself. It has the same basic PTSD symptoms with some add-ons and variations. Google can take you through that in more detail, Pete Walker is an especially helpful resource.
Emotional flashbacks are associated with C-PTSD. These types of flashbacks bring folks who experience them back not so much into the traumatic moment(s), but instead into the emotions they experienced in and around them. This can all feel very frightening and intense.
When this happens to me, I tend to find myself feeling like I’m in danger. I sometimes start to worry if I can trust people I previously thought I could. On top of that, I feel lost, alone, confused, and like there is something fundamentally wrong with me. I have a sneaking suspicion when I have a more serious medical problem, it may lead to me feeling there’s been a loss of control, which certainly could lead to a flashback of the feelings I just mentioned.
Although I’ve been working on my stuff for over 15 years, this is a newer scenario of getting ill, then possibly having emotional flashbacks, so I’m still working out strategies to deal with it. One thing I know is it’s important to respect my feelings, honor the part of me they come from, and recognize they come from a place that’s trying to protect me. On the flip side, it’s being able to honor those feelings while also remembering I am, “in the now.” I’m still working on that part. For me, it helps to talk about it with my team, write, lie under weighted blankets, get hugs, convince my friend’s pets to sit on me, eat a questionable amount of cookies, and get a bit of exercise. There will probably be other things I discover to help with this as I journey onward.
4. Structure and routine
Many folks, myself included, are helped by having structure and routine, this is especially so when you mix in mental illness. When you’re sick, that stuff regularly goes out the window, and usually for good reasons. You likely need to stay home, get more sleep and so on.
It may help if you’ve had an illness or injury to create some type of loose schedule. Doing things to, at the least, try and keep up your usual routine of sleep and meals. Have some human contact and so on. I tried really hard this time after my fall to do this. I was somewhat successful, but add in COVID-19 life, and it was a bit tricky.
5. Mind-body connection
I think we’ve moved into a new era where we more readily accept our various bodily systems are more connected than we used to think. Of course, in some cultures, this has been a common theory for a very long time. In some regards, science is playing catch-up with these theories.
Though not known long, stress can impact more than the brain, so why not the other way around? Could it be having a fall somehow jolts my brain into anxiety? Sure, why not? Could an infection also bring down my mood? Probably. Is my nervous system in such a precarious position that a slight upset in it puts me into overdrive? Sounds likely.
These connections may not be the whole reason for the trigger, but certainly can be a part of it. Knowing this can be of some comfort, and possibly even give you some hope things will eventually get back in order, or at least give you a plan on how to get there.
This is a lesson I think applies to me as well, but I’m still in the beginning stages of understanding it. As I said above, while I don’t have medical PTSD, medical situations are often not on the top of my list of things I enjoy. I’m getting better and I’m trying to understand.
I also experience dissociation and depersonalization, which can mean my connection/understanding with my mind and body can waiver. I don’t always put together things others might find obvious. I sometimes don’t notice if I’m sick, or do but ignore it entirely. I often don’t realize how much tension or anxiety my body is holding. I’m starting to see this is likely one of my next steps on my mental health journey, so we will see where this goes.
I wanted to write all this because I find great satisfaction in sharing my experiences in a way that can be helpful to others. So, I hope this has been useful to you in some way! Please let me know. Writing my heart out is also how I process things, so it’s very important to me. It took some emotional effort and time to write all this, but it’s worth it. It allows me to share parts of myself that aren’t always that comfortable to put into speech. It gives me something to look back on when I experience something similar in the future. It is something I can share with my support team and beyond. All those things are valuable to me.
Have you ever noticed an illness or ailment has triggered your mental illnesses to worsen? Do you have any additional thoughts on why that may be? What steps have you taken to remedy this? Do any of the reasons on my list stand out to you as something that may have impacted you? Further thoughts? Add them in the comments below!
If you’d like to follow along with my journey, you can find me on Instagram as @mentalhealthyxe.
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Heidi Fischer is a mental health advocate who lives in Saskatoon, Canada. Heidi enjoys writing about her personal experience with C-PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety. Heidi is the creator of a popular mental health Instagram called @mentalhealthyxe and can also be found on her website mentalhealthyxe.com.
Thanks for sharing your story, Heidi, and for the explanations. I can relate to the mental health downward spiral related to physical health/injury.
I too have CPTSD and have been working through trauma. Last summer my emotions shut down and I took medical leave from work and went into a mental health facility where all sorts of repressed memories came up. While I was there, however, I was worried about my job.
I get injured a lot because my muscles carry so much tight trauma (tearing tendons in my sleep). I was called “dramatic” by my parents for any injury and that’s a huge trigger, but at the same time, the idea that I won’t be able to work, of letting people down, and not having work as my distraction from trauma became hugely apparent while I was seeking treatment. I just kept trying to go back to work, trying to sneak it in like an addict. But my brain couldn’t think, so I couldn’t actually work. It took months of not working to settle that part down. Body’s protector as my therapist calls it.
Good luck on your journey as you navigate everything
Thanks for taking the time to comment Jamie and for sharing a part of your story. I get it and indeed the struggle is real… as they say. I’m glad things sound like they are going better at the moment. I appreciate you and wish you the best. 💕
Heidi, thanks for sharing. I could relate a great deal to much of it. My story is long and messy as most are. I’m just starting to process everything….its a bit much. I’m understanding the emotional triggers. Some of mine are being left waiting with no explanation, lying for any reason, and I struggle with trust. I’m a bit annoyed that it took me 59 yrs to figure out what 34 yrs of talk therapy and medications could not help. Hopefully on the right track. Thank you for your sharing. Only the best for you!
Thanks for your comment, and being here with us! It is a lot to process, and you are doing your best. One day at a time.
Illness itself is a trigger for me because part of the childhood abuse I experienced was my father accusing me of using illness as a way to have my mom “baby me” and to get out of doing my chores around the house (actually, we lived on a farm during part of my childhood, and among my chores was feeding the animals, which required some degree of physical fitness that I simply didn’t have when I was sick.) Growing up, I had regular asthma exacerbations and also pneumonia. As an adult now in my 6th decade, I have asthma COPD overlap. Aside from the fact that breathlessness provokes anxiety even in those who do not have a history of childhood abuse and trauma, being ill always (still) brings up the existential worry, will I be loved and safe even when I’m sick? I have a loving husband of several years whose love and devotion are beyond doubt. And yet the “little me,” my inner child, still harbors doubts and fears.
I’m sorry that, that was your experience. You deserved so much better. Thank you for being here with us and continuing to learn and grow.
I definitely have issues with getting sick being a trigger, and it various how serious my reactions are depending on the kind of illness.
I have medical traumas from being sick the first four years of my life and being in and out of the hospital from age 0-4, being stuck with needles and IVs and having surgeries, etc… with very little helpful emotional support from my parents because they weren’t in tune with my needs.
So, throw in being sick and feeling neglected by others around me and I start getting paranoid, anxious, having flashbacks, nightmares, mood swings (usually low depressive moods or teenage-esque irritability).
The emotional flashbacks are the worst because I still have trouble recognizing them in the moment, especially if it’s something different than usual that triggered me.
You’re definitely not alone in illness being a trigger.
And, throwing up and/or diarrhea…? Can also be a trigger for me because of said illnesses growing up, and also miscarriage trauma which created more medical trauma which ended up sexually retraumatizing me.
A VERY nasty loop of issues that has knocked the wind out of my sails for two and a half years now. Definitely not alone, Friend. Thanks for sharing your story! It’s nice to not feel so alone.
I’m glad my writing could help with not feeling alone, and I’m sorry that you struggle in a similar way. It’s really tough to be in that loop, no doubt. I hope you will find relief soon.
Wow, this article is making me look at my medical/mental health history differently! I got diagnosed with a chronic disorder heavily impacted by stress and anxiety not long after being hospitalized for a completely unrelated accident (until now, I wondered if the two could have been related but didn’t see how). Then, after managing said disorder pretty well for years, I happened to catch covid over the holidays and mysteriously, the disorder flared up a week after. I’m still trying to get that flareup under control now, but I’m so stressed from being sick that it seems nothing I try works. Between the symptoms and the stress, I have trouble sleeping as well. Anxiety and illness seem to feed into each other and it’s very hard to get out of that loop.
I know that when I was a kid my parents didn’t really take care of my siblings or myself when we were sick. Their religious beliefs made them wary of most medications and they basically thought a healthy lifestyle was the answer to everything. When one of us was sick, they’d basically blame us for it: too much candy at school, too much TV, not enough exercise – then they’d tell us to stop being so dramatic and wait it out. We were still expected to go to school, attend extracurriculars and do house chores no matter what. I remember feeling desperate, sometimes, when issues dragged on and I felt increasingly unable to balance all my responsibilities.
I’ll have to bring this to my therapist but it might be that the experience of physically feeling sick comes with a variety of deep-set anxieties – that I won’t be able to care for and protect myself in that state, that I’ll lose value if I can’t function normally, that it’s all my fault.
While trying to process self-blame that arises when making a medical appointment, I found myself here. I am not yet able to expand on my experience, but this comforts me, and clues me in to other connections. A warm thankyou to Heidi and everybody who courageously posted their stories. Embracing myself and reaching for routine. Popping these kindly words in my pocket.