For years they thought I had bipolar disorder. Now it's PTSD, an unknown autoimmune disease, and MGUS; and not bipolar disorder.

Folks with PTSD are more susceptible to many physical diseases.

From Pubmed:
2004 Dec
"Posttraumatic stress disorder and physical illness: results from clinical and epidemiologic studies." by Boscarino JA.

"Recent findings, indicating that victims of PTSD have higher circulating T-cell lymphocytes and lower cortisol levels, are intriguing and suggest that chronic sufferers of PTSD may be at risk for autoimmune diseases. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the association between chronic PTSD in a national sample of 2,490 Vietnam veterans and the prevalence of common autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, insulin-dependent diabetes, and thyroid disease. Our analyses suggest that chronic PTSD, particularly comorbid PTSD or complex PTSD, is associated with all of these conditions. In addition, veterans with comorbid PTSD were more likely to have clinically higher T-cell counts, hyperreactive immune responses on standardized delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity tests, clinically higher immunoglobulin-M levels, and clinically lower dehydroepiandrosterone levels. The latter clinical evidence confirms the presence of biological markers consistent with a broad range of inflammatory disorders, including both cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases."

Hi ho. <sigh>