Reddit mentions of Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Some form of dysautonomia perhaps?

As far as the anxiety, since you can't tolerate meds, try meditation or relaxation exercises. A great book on the subject is Full Catastrophe Living. You might find a program for it at your local hospital. It's not a quick fix, it will take weeks of practice, but it's very helpful.

/r/meditation is another place to look. On YouTube if you search for "yoga nidra" you will find lots of relaxation videos. The other advantage of meditation is that if you have trouble sleeping at night it can help you get the rest you need.

You might be able to tolerate some nootropics for your anxiety:

• Take 300-600mg Ashwagandha root extract standardized to ~5% withanolides and 200mg L-theanine in the morning

• Take more L-theanine as needed for extra relaxation and focus

• Take 200-400mg of magnesium citrate before bed

I struggled with this for a while (and still do) and saw a therapist for a short time who specializes in chronic pain (closest I could find to chronic illness). She definitely gave me some good tools to help keep things in perspective.

She recommended this book if you want to check it out. I honestly never finished it... https://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Revised-Illness-ebook/dp/B00C4BA3UK

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>Overall I'm interested to hear what the more medically minded people in this sub have to say because it was difficult for me to evaluate some of the claims this book makes.

Unfortunately I am not 100% medically minded but I felt the first half of the book did a good job of explaining the correlation between High ACE and then subsequent poor health.

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>(Side note: This book's explanation of meditation and how it works was really interesting to me and I would like to read more about it. I've been hesitant to add meditation to my daily routine because I find it hard to motivate myself to do something that I'm not sure has scientific backing as I hate wasting time. If anyone knows of a book along those lines, about proven health benefits of meditation and how it works, I'd like to read it. I read "10% Happier" and it ended up just being a memoir.)

Have you ever looked into Jon Kabat-Zinn? He has a really good book that talks about the health benefits of meditation. https://www.amazon.com/Full-Catastrophe-Living-Revised-Illness-ebook/dp/B00C4BA3UK/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=jon+kabat+zinn&qid=1558459638&s=gateway&sr=8-2

His book resonated with me and has helped me through some tough times.

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>I have an ACE score of 3 and am well aware of my trauma's impact on my mental health but I had never considered how it may impact my physical health. I think that was a valuable thing to learn and I'll probably try journaling about it soon. There have definitely been times in my life where I was marinating in stress, and that can't be good on the body.
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>Really curious to know what others think!

I can relate to your comments, and I feel like for the past 4 years since I had my son I have been marinating my body in stress and it has definitely caught up to me.

I recommend reading "Full Catastrophe Living". Chapter two is a great description of the different components of the mindset you need in order to cultivate mindfulness. It's not just meditation, it's about cultivating non-judgment, and acceptance, it's about being patient and bringing an active awareness to as many moments as you can.

The book should help you with your frustration.