Explore mental illness, its common symptoms, causes, and treatment options. Learn how to support mental health and seek help when needed.
When you drop something on your foot or slam your finger in a drawer, you know that pain will usually follow. Did you ever wonder why you feel that pain? Feeling pain in response to an injury is a signal that your body has been damaged in some way. Or, if you have an illness, headache, or another type of pain, it’s a signal to your brain that something is not right. Our nervous system is made up of…
Negative emotions increase pain responses in women with and without fibromyalgia (FM), while combined treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy and a tailored exercise program can improve outcome in FM, according to two studies published in the October issue of Arthritis Care & Research. Click Here to Visit the Store and find Much More…. Henriët van Middendorp, Ph.D., of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted an experimental study of women with and without FM…
Last month, we wrote on the topic of headaches and dehydration, especially during the hot summer months. But with the monsoon season in full swing, the changes in weather also bring what some have dubbed as “migraine season.” As the summer storms roll in, our pain specialists see an increase in appointments and complaints from weather-related chronic pain symptoms, including migraines. Click Here to Visit the Store and find Much More…. Barometric Pressure and Chronic Pain…
Headaches are often thought of occurring as a sign of a larger problem, and in most cases, this is true. Headaches frequently accompany colds, flu, chronic pain, and even food poisoning. However, sometimes headaches occur seemingly at random, but there may actually be a reason – dehydration. Believe it or not, dehydration can cause headaches. Dehydration occurs when we lose more fluids than we put in, and the body doesn’t have enough water and other…
New research was carried out by healthizes in order to better understand it’s fibromyalgia community members. The online poll sampled 671 people, all diagnosed with fibromyalgia and the results have provided a valuable insight into the connection between fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety. The healthizes survey revealed that the majority of fibromyalgia patients are also diagnosed with depression. Figures show that more than 63% of those surveyed stated they had been diagnosed with depression and 58%…
Stress makes mess Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a super spectacular stress free holiday season. So sorry that I disappeared but it’s been a rather extended round of not quite major and not quite minor flares… hmm maybe I’ll call it a “round” of flares. No, I’ve got it! The spinning wheel of stress n’ pain; spin it while you sleep, and wake up in the morning to a stressful, painful SURPRISE. Click…
Before fibromyalgia, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and other chronic illness took over my body, I would return home from a vacation feeling relaxed or energized. At first, my illnesses would require a little more rest while away. Because I pushed through pain and fatigue in hopes of keeping up with my family, I always returned home feeling like death. It was not unusual for my body to need days, weeks, and a few times months to…
Some people have an irrational fear of doctors. While some of us have been victimized so severely, that we may never trust one again. Since my first chronic illness diagnosis in 2001, my life, has been nothing short of a nightmare. I know my body well. In fact, I know better than any test or doctor. Tweet Not to sound conceited. But not one test or scan has ever shown the destruction that has been…
We have embodied beings. All of us. But what then is distinct about the lived experience of pain? What is it like to have your life and choices filtered by pain, limited by pain, and yet be invisible to others? I will tell you what it is like. It sucks. Yes, it sucks. There I said it. Like so many others with invisible disabilities I have danced, no, shuffled through life with this awesome mask…
Living with fibromyalgia can affect you physically and emotionally. Fibromyalgia is stressful. The pain and stress of fibromyalgia raise your body’s level of cortisol, a stress hormone. Adjusting to the disease and finding treatments that work can be frustrating. This fits with the fact that about 20% of people with fibromyalgia report feeling anxious or depressed. Don’t let fibromyalgia bring you down. Instead, do what you can to reduce the psychic toll of the illness.…