Early or Childhood stress, trauma & abuse manifesting later in life as chronic illness - possible?

I was watching a Netflix series called Afflicted along with a number of other documentaries about people who seem to come down with unexplainable illnesses, often very painful ones, many of which doctors can't agree upon the diagnosis or cause, there are conflicting diagnosis and obviously conflicting treatment paths/options. What seems to be consistent through most of these people is that something in their life triggers this condition, seemingly out of the blue - or it could be something traumatic like an injury - and they often go from being very healthy & fit (both physically and many times psychologically) to having a myriad of symptoms and most often very severe accompanying pain.

What I find from many of the shows, and often reading the forums online, is that many, if not most of the people suffering from these unexplainable conditions often suffered some kind of intense stress, abuse, trauma, etc in their childhood, often over extended periods of time (possibly their entire life until they moved out). What is odd is that while these people were in the stressful situation, they seemed healthy but this could be because they had to put on a "facade" that could be so deep as to being psychosomatic, where the fear of being sick or showing weakness in these stressful situations would have lead to umimaginable consequences, so the mind tricks the body into thinking that it is healthy, until the person is removed from that "stresser" and then the brain finally gives out and the symptoms appear, possibly much worse than what they would have originally been had they been able to shown authentically as a child.

Think about how many families where the children are either not cared for properly (emotionally, physically, etc) and they have to fight to survive within the family. If the mind is capable of creating illness simply by belief, then I suggest that the opposite is true, that it can hide illness, especially in survival mode - but there may be a high price to pay for this, which is why the body suddenly crashes and it is so dificult to diagnose some of these conditions.

What I think is that some people are abused in ways while they are children, that the mind/body does everything possible to keep them healthy and "under the radar" of their parents/"protectors" in order to keep the person alive at least until the person gets out of the situation, then they may have a "crash" or sudden onset of symptoms which were non-existent (or mild) before and are unexplainable.

I see this a lot with college students. People getting "mono" the first semester of college, where they feel like death, sometimes lasting an entire year. The diagnosis are often questionable but it is what the doctors go with b/c they don't know what esle to call it. Also, people who get this often don't have any idea how they would have contracted this, not kissing anyone, or sharing drinks/food, so the normal mode of transmission doesn't seem plausible. But it does seem logical that when they get away from their abusive/repressive homes, they suddenly "crash" b/c they are in a more safe environment and they mind/body can finally "let go" because it is somewhat "safe".

A similar example can be seen with care takers of very sick people. They can not afford to get sick, so they seem to be healthy, but as soon as the person they are caring for is cured, or dies, the care taker often comes down with a serious affliction, often with no diagnose cause and very odd symptoms. I propose that this is very similar to what I have explained above, that the mind tricks the body into thinking it is healthy because there is no other choice.

All of this doesn't mean that the people are not sick when they come down with these conditions, even if it is due to a mind/body relationship, the symptoms and pain are very real. I'm not sure the best way to treat conditions such as this, but I know telling people that they are crazy isn't the best option, as I don't think a crazy person would have suppressed the "sickness' as they did - it seems more like a survival mechanism.

This could date back when people lived in clans/tribes, when if a whole tribe would get sick they would all die. They would need at least some members to stay healthy, though it may be possible that they were in fact sick as well. By staying "unsick" they might have had a chance to nurse the others back to health, provide for them, etc and possible get reciprocal care once the others were better, or they would just die afterwards, but the rest of the group would be able to survive. So at least the whole tribe/clan wasn't dying and some would like to carry on the genes.

This could be the reason why some people are more prone to addiction or alcoholism while some don't seem to be effected by it at all - IDK.

I'm very interested in what others think about this issue and if there may be something to this correlation.

So an organism can become immune to a disease sickening the rest of the tribe, in order to heal them, and then get sick and die themselves... by the sheer fact their subconscious survival mechanisms grant super human ability?

I dunno.

Ehhh. I think it's down to luck mostly. There are people who had a rotten childhood who are all messed up and people who had a rotten childhood who aren't.

I think maybe the way people cope with it has a lot (but not everything) to do with it. If everyone tells them they ought to be all messed up, they'll probably believe it.

Certainly there's a little more going on than chance and randomness. Not much but still.

In my own childhood home there was a lot of abuse and it was very important to remain as invisible as possible; to not need anything or want anything or ask for anything. We were only being "good" if we were out of sight and silent. Although all of us came out of childhood in a rather neurotic state, the one who fared the worst was the child who was not a step-child. All of the abuse he experienced was from his 2 natural parents; unlike the rest of us who were being abused by 1 natural parent and 1 step-parent. The abuse one suffers from a step-parent is easier to brush-off, I think, because you don't have to tell yourself you must have done something to deserve such treatment.

My doctor has had it with me. I don't go to her anymore. After so many years, one day she wrote on my chart that I was "depressed", and I happened to see it. She would never tell me this to my face. And really, I think it is useful for doctors to broach the possibility with their patients that they are suffering a sickness of the emotions. But I suppose they are afraid of being sued.

Sal

a reply to: BrianFlanders

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

You watch some really depressing crap.