Hello Everyone
Firstly to say how much I appreciate this forum and the huge diversity of contributions to it. In the last 18 months I have learned so much from all of you and been able to manage my PMR/GCA and my life so much better than I could ever have done without it. Please forgive the length of my post below but given recent considerations I wanted to be as clear as I could about what I wanted to say:
I am sure that there is nobody on this forum who would disagree absolutely with the comment that we all live in a complicated and often ‘stressful’ world. We can ‘choose’ to turn off our media – smartphones, and landlines, radios, televisions and computers – any of the receivers of external information - if we like – but we would mostly also agree that is usually only a temporary solution if we are trying to ‘avoid’ the chaos of our world. To do so for extended periods of time would keep us isolated, out of touch and quite literally dis-connected – some of the worst ingredients spelled out by health practitioners and researchers as impacting our general health – mental, physical and emotional. This is almost ‘common knowledge’ now as ‘social models’ of health have shifted perspectives which were once more narrowly physiological or ‘biomedical’ to encompass the importance of our environments, social inequities and the importance of ‘positive’ interpersonal and social relationships for ourselves and those around us.
Regardless of the focus on the value of social interconnectedness and well-being we also know that ‘loneliness’ seems to be increasing – and there are many various debates and discussions about the causes of this – one of them being the intense engagement with digital technologies – rather than face to face human interactions. While this makes rather obvious ‘sense’ any consideration also needs to include the invaluable media connections for people who are unable to facilitate (for whatever reasons) those direct ‘real’ up close relationships. Families and friends that once lived – not so many decades ago – in the same street are now often scattered all over the globe and their primary connections are often now by phone or face-time as grandparents (for example) watch their grandchildren ‘grow – up’ even if 1000's of miles away ….
So ‘things’ are complicated as always – we are more interconnected in some ways than ever and yet often more isolated and lonely – and it is difficult to turn off the non face-to-face or ‘digital’ interconnections we have with the world without throwing the ‘baby out with the bath water’ but in not doing so we are inevitably also linked to the horrors on the globe it as well as its ‘beauties’. Yes we can do a bit of filtering – I for example literally cannot watch violent images – ‘real’ or (purportedly) ‘fictitious’ as they truly sicken me – I literally want to throw up and my stress levels go through the ceiling. Maybe I am not ‘typical’ and this is because for years I worked in prevention of violence and child sexual and other abuses – writing education programmes for children, parents, teachers and anyone else who would listen – and eventually felt I just could not do that anymore – I badly ‘needed’ to retreat to a quiet garden.
However for me ‘escaping to the garden’ was and could only ever be temporary – although it is sheer joy sometimes NOT to think of anything non-botanical as I plant a tree or pick some fruit – at least not to think about things over which I feel I have ‘no control’ and which often only make me feel frustrated, horrified and ill. But I have realised I could not be like a friend who told me she never listens to or watches any ‘news’ or current affairs discussion – and is much ‘happier’ for it. But it is simply not in my nature to ignore the cruelty and inhumanity in the world - otherwise I only feel ‘complicit’ - which for me is an even worse feeling – so I still attempt to stay abreast of multiple issues relating to the prevention (and necessarily perpetration) of violence of all kinds.
This - the massive issue of VIOLENCE world-wide is now anyway almost unavoidable – whether in people’s homes, communities, on the streets, in schools … almost ‘everywhere’ and for those who stay ‘connected’ – it is often seen -frequently ‘normalised’ in the media via non-emotive news reports or worse still as ‘entertainment’ – often in the form of horrific pornography, extreme torture scenes with a ‘new’ visceral hyperbolic resonance of sheer brutality in amplified sounds of kicks, punches and beatings as enhanced by ‘clever’ audio technicians. Now finding anything much in film libraries or on the main media platforms which is not ‘shot through’ with some degree of traumatising cruelty and violence is increasingly difficult.
Whether the intention is to deconstruct and critique violence or whether it is merely being ‘reconstructed’ is often questionable (regardless of fiction/non-fiction formats) as all of us at some level – even if unconsciously - must ultimately as 'witnesses' experience increased ‘stress’ - ('adrenaline' hits are regarded I know by some as desirable) with the possibility of accrued even if subliminal long lasting psychological and emotional impacts. (It is for example noteworthy that PTSD is generally regarded as a pyschological 'illness' but probably should be construed as a 'normal' human response to the most extreme of circumstances). Add these less than positive cultural factors to what we are told about current and looming horrors of climate change, intermittent if hyperbolic rhetorical threats of nuclear exchanges - and the all the current multifarious ‘disasters’ on our planet – it seems almost impossible to exist without a high degree of concern and ‘stress’.
It could be argued that there is significant ‘evidence’ with the rapidly increasing incidence (or diagnoses) of AI illnesses such as PMR/GCA -(strongly suspected as having links to environmental triggers see below**) OK yes we know we likely need the ‘genetic’ propensity but ‘stressful’ triggers are now almost everywhere. Should we be surprised then that many more women (also globally the main targets of violence and abuses) than men develop these conditions … and just WHAT can we do to prevent all this, or to get better and then stay well !!??
The thing is if we ‘switch off’ the ‘horrors of the world’ and pretend they have nothing to do with us it might help for a while – but I think not for most of us – we are after all ‘social creatures’ and apparently do better and even live longer if we do engage with others - if only ‘digitally’. The detachment and compartmentalisation of ourselves and our feelings – and avoidance of anything which disturbs our ‘emotions’ can help temporarily but ultimately also can detach us from the very thing we NEED most and that is ‘eachother’ and caring about ‘eachother’.
My main point is – we really DO need to stay engaged and speak and write and express our thoughts, feelings and perspectives about the tough stuff within our own lives as well as what we ‘see’ and experience in the world. If we find something horribly disturbing we can – yes – not read it or switch it off – but we must be aware that it won’t then just evaporate – ‘ it’ will likely continue hurting someone else – ‘others’ – somewhere else.
This then is yes I know a DILEMMA !!! but if we feel in any way the world IS making us ‘SICK’ this leaves us then I think no option – we must somehow change things, personally, interpersonally and socially – even ‘globally’ (some would say ‘politically’) if we want our children, grandchildren and future generations to ever have the opportunity to live well and BE truly ‘well’ .
Best and kindest wishes to all
Rimmy
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**Stress as a trigger of Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune Review 2008 7 (3) 209-13
Stojanovich L, Marisvljevich, D.,
Abstract:
‘The etiology of autoimmune diseases is multifactorial: genetic, environmental, hormonal, and immunological factors are all considered important in their development. Nevertheless, the onset of at least 50% of autoimmune disorders has been attributed to "unknown trigger factors". Physical and psychological stress has been implicated in the development of autoimmune disease, since numerous animal and human studies demonstrated the effect of sundry stressors on immune function. Moreover, many retrospective studies found that a high proportion (up to 80%) of patients reported uncommon emotional stress before disease onset. Unfortunately, not only does stress cause disease, but the disease itself also causes significant stress in the patients, creating a vicious cycle. Recent reviews discuss the possible role of psychological stress, and of the major stress-related hormones, in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. It is presumed that the stress-triggered neuroendocrine hormones lead to immune dysregulation, which ultimately results in autoimmune disease, by altering or amplifying cytokine production….’
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