I like the analogy in which you view yourself as queen or king of a kingdom. You have an army, which is your nervous system and you have a navy, which is your immune system. Together they defend against invading armies. If you experience chronic stress then this means that your armies are constantly have to defend the kingdom and therefore are weakening. This weakening can be likened to a drought, in which supplies are short. So then suppose a new invader emerges, your armies will not be fit and ready to fight and therefore it will take a longer time for them to defend against the invader and therefore you will feel malaise. The armies then get increasingly triggered and take up more resources to do the same level of defending. The armies are not concerned with the wellbeing of the kingdom, they are purely focused on survival.
So, the armies are so hypersensitive that they will be triggered into a full blown reaction when they see only a person on a horse in the horizon, rather than just when a full army is visible. The army, like the body becomes overreactive and associates danger in things that are no longer a danger to us, or offer minimal risk. Hayfever is a good example of this for those who do not experience CFS/ME – with hayfever people have an inflammatory reaction to something that is unlikely to be harmful. The symptoms of hayfever become the real issue. A commonly used analogy is that of a smoke alarm – the smoke alarm may react to smoke when a crumb of toast is burning, or there is steam in the room, but there is no actual fire. Like with CFS/ME/Fibromyalgia, it is oversensitive and the alarm is going off when there is nothing organically faulty and unfortunately the symptoms that it creates can also further increase the sensitivity and chance of the alarm going off. The armies are so frantically defending the kingdom that they are firing off arrows into all the wrong places, wasting resources and not noticing that there could be an inside secret agent – this is how you can have a heightened inflammatory response, whilst also being more susceptible to infections etc.
It is therefore up to you as the king/queen of the kingdom, to tell the Generals that the war is over, to let them know that there is no more chronic stress, the situation is no longer the same, everyone is safe now, the kingdom is safe now and they can stand down and rest. Obviously, if the situation is the same as when you became ill and you are not in effect safe, then this requires a different conversation and approach.
The best way to tell the armies/your body that it is safe and the defences can be reduced, is to do this is by breathing and meditating while experiencing challenging emotions. This will enable your body to activate your parasympathetic nervous system and initiate a sense of safety. This is why what you do is less important than how you do it. The mood in which you approach any activity is vital to the repercussions that you might experience and is vital to whether you can retrain the brain that you are safe and the activity or experience that you are undergoing is safe.
Dr Chekkie Kauntze & Associates 