Filed police report.. now am sick?

[RoadtoHappy]

Hi All,

So on Friday I finally after 15 long years made a report to the police. I had to wait until yesterday (Monday) to meet with two detectives to make a full statement. It took 4.5 hours to do and was grueling.. I found the hardest part was having to listen to the officer read aloud my statement to me to ensure it was correct. The police were lovely and my husband was by my side and finally its done. My problem is today I have woken up with a stomach bug and head cold.I still have to work but luckily I can work from home. My job is quite stressful and through all of this I haven't really been able to take any time off and have had to get up every day and face people and try be productive.. Even when my PTSD symptoms spike! I am just physically exhausted from the stress of it all.

Has anybody else ever had physical symptoms/illness that is from stress? I am just wondering if its a bug I have caught or is it a manifestation of the stress. I do feel a little relieved that part is done but thought I would be starting a new chapter today and not feeling sorry for myself cause I'm sick.

 

[somerandomguy]

Getting sick can definitely be a manifestation of stress. We're exposed to bugs all the time, but usually our immune systems fight them off before we even notice them. Stress can inhibit the immune system, so we're more likely to get sick when we're stressed.

Long-term stress, like PTSD, can cause chronic immune conditions like fibromyalgia.

 

[Victory]

Hi All,

So on Friday I finally after 15 long years made a report

 

[Victory]

Oops, ignore that last partial post. I hit the wrong button.
So to address the question of whether stress can make you ill from normal contagions, my answer would be a resounding YES! I even get sick from what we call "good stress" like getting excited because we're going on a vacation. And it was my primary care doctor who noticed it first, not me. I think it's the darned stress hormones that flood our body that knocks our immune system for a loop. Hope you feel better soon...

 

[Sweetleaf]

I am still too afraid to try filing a report... It sounds like such an ordeal. I just want it all to go away. I don't want to deal with his stuff... I want it to be over. I want this all to just be in the past.

Kudos to you for being brave enough to file charges. I wish I was, because I know that monster is going to f*ck up more people than just me. It makes me so anxious and stressed to even think about filing charges...

In regards to the actual thread topic: not long after I freed myself from the abusive situation I was in, just after I began to recover from the psychosis brought on by the trauma of the last weeks of that situation, I got very ill (vomiting etc) for the first time in years. The last time anything other than tea (yeah...) made me vomit, I was in like 4th grade.

I was sooo stressed in sooo many ways during that time. There was the INTENSE fear that my abuser, who threatened to kill me so many times, was out there, probably very angry with me, and honestly, many times he wasn't very far from causing my death. I am legitimately lucky to be alive, because that sure as shit wasn't skill. He would in detail tell me about his homicidal fantasies, including how he wanted to kill me before he killed himself. He would go back and forth on that one, depending on his mood.

So I was kinda really fuzzy in the brain, due to how it was just days after acute psychosis. By that point I was me again - like my sense of self returned and I no longer felt like God was talking to me and other f*cking batshit crazy things like that. Basically, I was back to nice, lucid sanity, but my brain felt very slow and tired, if that makes sense. Things were just hard to do, I couldn't handle much of anything, and on top of it I was living with intense fear, anxiety, paranoia, at the thought that I was still in danger of him coming to kill me, plus. So basically, super stressed, and then I got vomit sick for the first time in nearly two decades.

Oh yeah, oh top of all of that, I was also intensely afraid that I was insane, or was going to go insane, or would go back into psychosis, or that I was still in it and didn't realize it. I didn't even feel like I could trust my own thoughts or perceptions. It's a scary thing.

Sorry for the wall of text btw lol. I kind of rambled there.

 

[Overcoming]

Yes, stress has cause me to become ill before. Earlier this year it happened and I was sick for an entire week. The symptoms were flu like but that's not what it was. I was miserable. I am so sorry that you are going through that. That was incredibly Brave of you to go make a report.

 

[Sideways]

Well done for filing a report with the police. That’s huge! That takes immense courage that you should be proud of.

Stress definitely effects the immune system. I commonly get my migraine just after I’ve finished the super-stressful task. Like my body heaves a sigh and says “Okay, NOW I can be sick!”

It will pass. Please make sure you have some good support in place to help ease you out of the stress of ahat you’ve just pulled off:)

 

[Mee]

You know: There is great news in this!

For the part of my trauma which I was able to report, even though it did not end in conviction, I have significant ’closure’ I really hope that the reporting helps you as much as it helped me.

And yes; Our bodies are maxed out dealing with stress. Stress is not ’ethereal’ our bodies have to process the chemicals/hormones and reactions this creates. SOME stress is normal and even arguably healthy :) but the demands our poor bodies are under us significant and this is an unnatural demand they are placed under and this means other things slip.

I imagine my body a tiny bit like a beehive : there is only so much the hive can do

 

[Freida]

Yep --- getting sick after a big stressful event is pretty common. It's almost like the release of the stress is what triggers it.

And @somerandomguy is right -- PTSD has been linked to fibro as I have unfortunately found out. So self care is crucial even after the report is done...

thought I would be starting a new chapter today and not feeling sorry for myself cause I'm sick.

New chapter with old baggage. Filing a report requires an amazing amount of courage and can give you closure, but it may also bring things up related to the initial event. If you are not talking with a therapist you might want to consider getting one because you may find a big flood of emotions coming up now - both good and bad. Either way it can be an unexpected stresser.

 

[RoadtoHappy]

Thank you so much for ever single message. I am feeling a bit better today. No longer vomiting or in pain, still have head cold and blocked sinus but def on the mend. It was bizarre as I had no fever at all yet I had full flu symptoms, aches and pains, sore throat, watery eyes etc and then I had the vomiting bug too. I know there are plenty of bugs going around with the time of year but it was just weird the timing, I never get sick and the fact that it seemed like 2 separate illnesses.

I have an amazing Therapist that I see tonight and can talk it all through but so far I am just relieved its done. They will be conducting interviews next week with some witnesses/ people I spoke with/ family/friends so that is very stressful to think of and nerve wrecking but once that is done hopefully I can put it out of my mind and see what happens.

Thank you all for your support and sending support back to each and every one of you.

 

[Blue Survivor]

Back when I was working at an animal shelter, a speaker came to talk to us about Burnout and Compassion Fatigue. While I realize neither of those are PTSD, I remember her saying this: "When we're happy and not under a lot of stress, we are at EASE. When we not happy or are dealing with a lot of stress we are DI-STRESSED and DIS-EASED." Aka distressed & diseased. That stuck with me.

So yes, I think that PTSD can very much make us feel physically ill. I think that anyone dealing with high levels of stress or anxiety is more susceptible to disease/a cold/the flu/etc.

Side note - once a majority of my County lost power for almost two weeks during the snowy winter. I got the worst cold ever, and went to the doctor. He told me that I wasn't sick. What?!? I was congested like crazy and so achy. His answer: I was so cold that I was shrugging my shoulders etc to try to stay warm and by doing that for two weeks it 'tightened up' my nasal cavities etc. He was right!