One of the biggest lessons I learned after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and learning a lot more about what that meant, was that healing is not linear. We don’t start at point A and have a direct, clear route to point B. For most of us, we don’t set down the road and have a smooth ride to the finish line. There is not a specific time in which each individual will put their autoimmune disease into remission or heal their symptoms. There is also no guarantee we won’t feel autoimmune or inflammatory symptoms again. Healing isn’t something we strive for, reach, and then we relax and we are all good hanging out there.
The healing journey can be complex, with many bumps in the road, lots of twists and turns, ups and downs, just like our life experience. Our health ebbs and flows, often in relation to what is going on in our life at the time. How resilient our body is or how long our body takes to heal is determined by many factors such as how long we have had our symptoms, if we have a diagnosis and treatment plan, our lifestyle choices such as stress levels and getting quality, restorative sleep, and our diet choices.
Having an autoimmune disease or chronic inflammation means our immune systems can get revved up or go rouge in relation to our lifestyle choices and what is going on in the moment. Chronic stress and lack of quality, restorative sleep is enough to leave me feeling like an autoimmune flare is coming on or to start feeling inflammatory symptoms.
I have had this reminder over the last few months since the pandemic hit. My stress levels were high, my schedule was off, and therefore, my health started to suffer. I began to make changes to accommodate the uncertainty and unpredictability of what was going on in our world, especially when I had no idea when the stresses related to the Coronavirus would subside.
Recently, I woke up feeling like I had been “glutened”, which for me with Celiac Disease, meant extreme fatigue where I woke up feeling like I hadn’t slept a wink, severe bloating, muscle aches, brain fog, and digestive issues. I could not pinpoint being “glutened”, but I definitely felt flared up. I took an inventory of the week and could connect the dots to see what likely caused my flare-up. My daughter was back in school (virtually) and we had a new daily schedule that started a lot earlier than we have been used to. Consequently, I was still adjusting my sleep schedule to try to fall asleep earlier to ensure I was getting enough sleep. I am not there yet, so I haven’t been getting nearly enough sleep over these last few weeks since school started. I have also had some things going on in my life that have been emotionally stressful. Lack of sleep and stress often brings on inflammatory symptoms for me and others with autoimmune disease and inflammatory conditions.
Paying attention and listening to my body helps me to scale back and make changes where necessary to work towards bringing my body back into balance. I knew and could feel what was happening. It was a set-back, one that I knew was temporary, but that I needed to respond to before it got worse.
Having a setback doesn’t equal failure. It’s an opportunity to listen to our bodies and identify what’s going on in our lives that could be altered to keep moving forward instead of spiraling backward. Through each set back we learn more about ourselves and our bodies. What tends to flare us up? What helps get us back on track to feeling good again? This is all incredibly helpful information for managing and supporting our health moving forward. Each experience, whether it’s a setback or a victory, is part of our healing journey.
