Posted by Jack (167.206.58.39) on January 22, 2000 at 11:03:57:
I am a chronic theorist. Lying in bed this morning, wishing I could get some more REM sleep, my right side of my brain had a brainstorming session with the left side of my brain.
The side that tends to be less analytical and more intuitive ( whichever side that is, I forget and it does not matter anyhow )won the debate. So I very humbly offer these three unscientific and intuitive theories as to why someone might be chronic rather than episodic.
1) chronics have a more severe form of the disease than episodics. Not qualitatively different just more severe.
2) chronics have a qualitatively differen form of the disease. There is something ELSE wrong with them.
3) Medications, particularly preventatives have had the perverse effect of prolonging the disease. What I mean by this is that maybe, just maybe chronics get an early medical intervention with some preventative that puts the disease into a low level status that prevents it from self-correcting. My point is kind of radical but it goes like this - the body has very strong natural processes in our immune system and elsewhere that seek equilibrium and correction. When we intervene in that process maybe we can have unintended consequences. Now here is where I am gonna get real "out there" - but I have always felt ( I hate when people use "felt" when they really mean "think", so I am filled with self-loathing at this moment - but as I said earlier that side of my brain is temporarily in control ) that in a cluster my body was correcting and I had to let nature run its course.
I offer these 3 theories knowing that they are not even mutually exclusive and that it is conceivable that all 3 can be going on in an individual at once. I would also add that all chronics ( even those who have never had a break since that first visit from the beast ) were technically episodic ONCE.
When I am between cycles I never say I am in remission. I do not have clusters between cycles. When I am in a cycle I know there is something very wrong with me ( with or without meds ), but that it will correct. I really, really want to know why chronics don't correct.