A University of Tennessee study of childhood experiences is looking for MS patients to answer questionnaire.

[CatsandCars]

The questionnaire asks about things like whether you witnessed violence, experienced food insecurity, whether you had at least one parent who cared about you...that sort of thing. I completed it in about ten minutes. You get a $10 gift card for completing the questionnaire if you provide you email address.

redcap.uthsc.edu/redcap/sur...

[falalalala]

I'd like to see what they find out.

[CatsandCars in reply to falalalala]

I think it would be very interesting. I also hope that they get around to looking at trauma or significant loss in adults. But it's something that I don't think that anyone else has looked at, at least not that I'm aware of. The questions made me feel pretty fortunate, actually.

[falalalala in reply to CatsandCars]

There was a psychologist on YouTube that talked about a connection between the two.

She made a convincing argument.

Do I remember her name? Of course not!😅

[CatsandCars in reply to falalalala]

That's okay. If you had remembered, I would just be jealous of your awesome memory! 😅

[falalalala in reply to CatsandCars]

😅😅

[NorasMom in reply to CatsandCars]

I've wished someone would look into environment and genealogical backgrounds. My family has an awful lot of auto-immune disorders and cancers, most of which are considered genetic but not hereditary. I can't help but think there's a missing piece that connects them all.

[CatsandCars in reply to NorasMom]

I agree. My late husband had two sisters with MS, and you hear that all the time. I've been thinking I am the first in my family to have MS, although there is a case of someone abandoning their family in my family tree, so who's to say that there wasn't anyone in that part of the family? Or maybe I'm a pioneer, who knows? 😅

[Cwright170994 in reply to NorasMom]

My mum had Graves Disease, which caused her thyroid produced too much of the thyroid hormone. That is an autoimmune condition, and it was only found out when she was pregnant with my younger brother 😬 she had to get a parathyroidectomy, as well as one where they remove tissue from the back of her eyes. She also had to get radio-iodine therapy 🫣

To be fair, my brother's dad is a complete gaslighting prick 😒 we're all happy she kicked him out and found herself a new man. He's not bothered that he can't have kids with mum, because she got sterilised, but he's stepped up to the dad role to us "kids" (not really kids anymore 😅) and we all love him and what he's doing with mum.

[CatsandCars in reply to Cwright170994]

Hey, Charlotte. That's a lot to go through. I didn't realize that thyroid disease could be so rough.

So glad that your mum dropped her boyfriend. I would like to see that happen to all of the world's "gaslighting pricks"! It's great that you and your mum both have such great guys. I love when that happens!

[Cwright170994 in reply to CatsandCars]

They really are just happy coincidences! Like me with mine. If I hadn't gone on that "blind" double date one of my uni housemates set me up on, I wouldn't have met him, and then had a few more dates with just us 2 before we started going out. I think I was brave enough to ask him out, like, "are we boyfriend and girlfriend now?" ❤️ If mum hadn't gone on Plenty of Fish, and had an issue with her's being a lorry diver and they could only speak to each other over the phone when he was at work, I wouldn't have felt comfortable when he "officially" became my dad and walked me down the aisle last year! He actually got a bit emotional when I asked him 🫶 He's proper slotted in with the madness of my family! I gave him the nickname "Scouse," because he comes from Liverpool. He gave me the nickname , "Batfink," because I'd hear him talking to mum on the phone. Then both of them call my other half, "Data," because he kinda looks like the bloke on the "My Data Self," ad 🤣

[CatsandCars in reply to Cwright170994]

You all sound like a fun crew. I love it when that happens.

[Cwright170994 in reply to CatsandCars]

It's really crazy how they appear during your darkest days! A case of, "what are the chances?", "I'll roll 1000 dice and I get the maximum score on them all!" kind of thing 🫣

[CatsandCars in reply to Cwright170994]

Absolutely!

[EightDashBar]

Thank you! I came out of the survey thankful that things hadn't been worse. These types of surveys help put my own childhood trauma into perspective. There's always someone who had it worse! It hope they'll get around to publishing the results for people to read.

I agree about significant trauma/loss as an adult; that would be interesting. My traumatic life events happened long after the age of 18, and it was a challenge to complete this survey focusing on childhood trauma rather than the much more significant adult trauma. Still, I did it, and managed to get through the whole thing in one go, without getting sidetracked... which is quite an achievement for me! 😂

[CatsandCars in reply to EightDashBar]

I agree on both points.

I'm glad you were able to complete it in one go! 🏆😁

[Amore55]

Interesting survey. I’m glad I took it and hope we get to see the full results of it!

[CatsandCars in reply to Amore55]

Me, too! 😊