Secretflower
New member
Hello everyone!Well, here I am doing my first posting as someone who first suffered from this horrible illness 13 years ago. I went through all the usual worries, tests etc (nil significant) but remained distressed nevertheless at having to endure twitching, burning, vibrations and shooting pains without any prospect of it getting better or otherwise getting relief from medication, alternative therapies, nutrition, yoga etc; tried them all but nothing made any difference apart, perhaps, from cranial sacral osteopathy...but this may have been coincidental. Anyway, the short story is that my symptoms persisted in an acute stage for about 5 years before then gradually becoming less intense and frequent, interspersed with occasional relapses with longer and longer intervals in between (for the last 5 years have had, on average, 1 or 2 relapses a year for a day or two with mild symptoms). HOWEVER, have now had a full blown relapse with strong and frequent symptoms for 2 weeks now. Seems to me that this has been triggered by a severe episode of flu, as happened first time round.Am now relieved to find a support group such as this as the internet was not really accessible when all this first started and I had big problems just with having my symptoms believed . I am now trawling through the postings to see if there have been any advances in treatment since 1994. Have made an appointment to see my GP on Monday who,I imagine, will suggest a referral to a neurologist. Have not yet made up my mind whether to undergo the whole shebbang of MRIs EMGs etc again; doesnt seem much point but maybe that's just avoidance. What I would particularly like to figure out is what is a typical reaction to the experience of such symptoms. I find that (as usual) I try to carry on and ignore them but that is probabaly just exacerbating the stress cycle which is likely to be risk factor in itself. On the other hand, we dont really have much choice do we? I wonder how others are affected in their ability to do their jobs, to socialise with friends etc? I am also a bit curious about the research on prevalence which indicates that about 35% of BFS suffererers work in the medical profession (I am a Clinical Psychologist). If this is an accurate statistic, it may give us some clues about causal factors (probably to do with coping styles with stress I think) as this is clearly a statistically significant finding.Enough of the science; just wanted to say hi really!!