Explore the conditions associated with Fibromyalgia, their symptoms, and how to manage them for improved well-being.
I have had Fibromyalgia since mid-2006, acquired during a long bout with a viral infection in my central nervous system. I used Neurontin, Percocet, Cymbalta, and Lyrica in the following 4 years to manage my pain. While on Lyrica I slept a lot and ballooned up like a, well, balloon! I did get off of Percocet, though, and had no pain. Despite that wonderful result, I went off Lyrica and back to Neurontin, using Tramadol…
“When anxious people anticipate something bad about to happen- such as being confronted with creepy pictures of snakes or spiders- their right frontal insulas go into overdrive”, Blakeslee and Blakeslee Many of us with fibromyalgia can remember childhood as the beginning of a lifetime of fear, and anxiety. Since there might have been a significant childhood episode that triggered this dis-ease called fibromyalgia, it stayed with us while other troublesome events in our lives piled…
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear”, Mark Twain All of us with fibromyalgia suffer from repressed emotions and are coping with overstimulation and sensory processing sensitivity. Never has it been so challenging as it has been in the past months with the chaos in the world that we hear of almost no stop in the media. What is to be done? We can’t continue to watch the news on a regular…
” When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig”, Leonard Cohen As I have been limping along these past few months following hip surgery I began to have foot pain, a condition I had never had before. I was speculating about the cause. Too little walking of late? Plantar fasciitis? Shifting from soft sponge shoes (GoWalk) to sneakers that are heavier? Shuffling after the surgery? The…
“To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom”, Bertrand Russell I believe that those of us with central sensitization, that is, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, or to call it by another name -“post-traumatic stress disorder”, all suffer from chronic anxiety/ fear. These terms are, in my view, interchangeable. They can keep us imprisoned without recourse and in a state of hopelessness. In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services has developed a new name…
“I base most of my fashion sense on what doesn’t itch”, Gilda Radner There isn’t anything more comforting to me than cloth that is soft and soothing. Mostly, it is cotton that gives me a feeling of being in a cocoon. Since the most popular blog on this busy website is about itching it has brought to mind the ways in which we can reduce the itching and scratching (the “Itchy & Scratchy Show” from…
“What’s in a name?”, Shakespeare The nomenclature of Fibromyalgia can be known as: “Central Sensitization”, “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”, “Cycles of Over-Exertion-Relapse”, and “Chronic Fatigue Disorder”, and now a new term: “Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disorder”- all with the same characteristics. What’s to be done so that we can explain ourselves to others while so many labels of these invisible syndromes abound? In fact, do all these terms mean the same thing? Are they bio–psycho–social in…
“With hypnosis, we can help people modulate perceptions in ways that are therapeutically helpful”, David Spiegel For those of us with chronic pain and/or a myriad of other distressing physical and psychological conditions the practice of ‘changing our brains’ through relaxation and exercise regimes can be overwhelming. Mindfulness meditation is one way that we can work with our minds to improve our daily lives, but it takes time and discipline. What if there is a…
” There are many other (besides testosterone) behavior-eliciting hormones fundamental for human well-being, including estrogen and progesterone in females”, Carl Sagan The question arises about why fibromyalgia is more prevalent in highly sensitive women and men. The debate about nature/nurture has not yielded specific answers and for a while, I have thought of it as a moot point. As a nurse/sociologist I have leaned toward the impact of the social environment in early childhood. But,…
” Early in life, I was visited by the bluebird of anxiety”, Woody Allen Anxiety is the root cause of fibromyalgia, particularly at an early age, or even in the womb. So, how is one to overcome the early stages of this deep-seated emotional characteristic that those of us with fibromyalgia struggle with on a day-to-day basis? Even more significant: how do we explain to others that the challenges of life-long anxiety cannot be overcome by…