Stress and anxiety are an unfortunate, but common and inevitable feature of modern life.

As with diet, obesity, alcohol and smoking I am afraid that the news is simple. They have to be addressed as part of a holistic approach to coping with Fibromyalgia and CFS.

Learning to deal with stress is something that can be consciously learned and practiced, and new techniques can prove very effective.

A higher than average percentage of sufferers undergoing Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue treatment were engaged in high stress environments or were suffering extreme anxiety when they became ill.

Sufferers may have been carers for relatives or young children. Stress and anxiety may have been in work detail or during a divorce or home move.

Whatever the cause, a significant increase in stress and anxiety is frequently cited at the time of onset of the sufferers Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome symptoms.

As well as being involved in the onset of the illness, stress is also involved in the worsening of the illness post onset.

Blood pressure, heart rate and the entire endocrine system which controls hormone production are all implicated and involved during stress reactions.

Unfortunately, the system that directly controls all these systems, the Autonomic Nervous System, in particular the Sympathetic Nervous Systems, or day nerve, remains malfunctional post-onset.

The result, unfortunately, will be a worsening downward spiral of your fatigue and Fibromyalgia symptoms to stress and anxiety producing situations.

To make matters worse there is evidence that once activated the stress reaction lasts much longer in individuals afflicted with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Is CFS more common in stressed or anxious people?

Let me first give a broad outline of how general medical advice is presented to healthcare providers for the purpose of diagnosing Fibromyalgia and CFS sufferers.

Frequently seen characteristics of CFS and Fibromyalgia sufferers:

. People who through their own personal attitudes and anxieties tend to make their own lives more stressful.

. People who are highly ambitious and appear to be always active physically and mentally.

. People whose lives are fully absorbed coping with the needs and requirements of others.

. People who avoid taking the time they need for themselves to rest, relax, recuperate and build supportive relationships.

. People who have difficulty finding others to confide in, so bottling up emotions and pain at times of bereavement or loss.

. In itself this is not an inaccurate description of the frequently seen characteristics of Fibromyalgia and CFS sufferers. However it is so broad that it can describe sufferers with a multitude of other conditions.

. As I have said many times, the human body is a remarkably resilient organism, able to accommodate fantastic pressures and stresses, but as with all machines and organisms there comes a breaking point.

. Stress and anxiety appear to be a very large facilitating factor for people who become the unfortunate ones to develop CFS and Fibromyalgia after a trigger infection or trauma.

. A similar example of stress related conditions are those referred to as burnout, or simply stress, and I quote :- A series of personal life circumstances combine to create a breaking point, for example; death of a close family member, chronic pain, moving house, bullying at work, divorce, separation, financial loss or redundancy have all been linked to detrimental changes in health

How stress and anxiety can become a causal factor in Fibromyalgia and CFS.

The initial trauma that was the accepted trigger of your CFS or Fibromyalgia is usually cited as a bacterial/ viral or chemically invasive attack of some kind. But it has been noted that in some sufferers, extreme acute stress and anxiety, such as bereavement, divorce, bullying, extremes of overwork may also be a trigger for CFS symptoms in the absence of a notable infection or exposure.

This makes sense in that scientific evidence has shown conclusively that stress lowers our immune defenses against infection as witnessed by white blood cell and lymphocyte counts.

Also, stress and anxiety have been shown to directly affect the body in the short to medium term, causing extreme fatigue and more disabling problems such as migraine, impairment of concentration and memory, interrupted sleep patterns and depression.