Fibromyalgia Support Group
You're not alone in your pain. Fibromyalgia is a condition that can be difficult to diagnose and manage. If you're trying to cope with pain throughout your body, sleep problems, general fatigue, or other common fibromyalgia symptoms, you're in the right place. The community is here for you to talk about therapies and share your challenges.
I just read an article re: Fibromyalgia on www.naturalhealthtechniques.com that claims our condition primarily stems from unresolved issues such as anger, resentment & stress. I was diagnosed years ago by a Rhumetologist specializing in the treatment of Fibromyalgia. She told me at the time I needed to learn how to relieve the stress in my life by exercising, eating right and changing jobs if I was overwhelmed w/ ongoing stressful situations. When I lost 30 lbs my symptoms nearly diminished but in the past 2 1/2 yrs I've gained all the weight back and find myself in tremendous physical pain once again. I work in an extremely stressful environment and my Mom is also terminally ill. I suppose poisons & toxins could very well stem from anger & resentment. Any one else out there relate?
Thank you for posting the link. It might be very helpful to many in our Group, however, I'm not going to go to it. But, only because I'm already very familiar with that theory. Most of the docs I've seen since I've been in AR say; "Take a Tylenol, exercise and see a Psychiatrist." Well, I do see a Psychiatrist and a Therapist. Are you seeing a mental health professional? You are going through so much I would think that it might be helpful.
Back to the theory; sorry I digressed. Stress does cause disease (dis ease). I have reactive hypoglycemia & it's diet & stress reactive. So, stress can cause my pancreas to shoot out the insulin like crazy. Many times heart & cancer patients are told that they must avoid as much stress as possible. You know more about your symptoms than anyone else. We don't necessarily share all of the same symptoms. My Psychiatrist and Therapist are convinced that my symptoms are not brought on by stress, depression, or any other mental health condition. I am having problems with depression, which they've identified as "situational" and they are concerned that I will succumb to feelings of hopelessness.
I've known only a few people (all women) with Fibromyalgia. That is the reason I'm so grateful to find everyone here. The few women I do know personally have all been independent women, career-oriented, very invested in their jobs, volunteer work, their families, their churches, etc. I was too. That kind of lifestyle is full of stresses. Many of us are workaholics and that is neurotic behaviour. But, I loved my work and other activities. I enjoyed being an appreciated and respected member of my community and family. I've lost all of that; my work, my home, my independence, my self-esteem. Now, I am totally stressed all of the time. Extreme pain is extremely stressful.
You said it yourself, Nanayaya - you work in an extremely stressful environment, your Mom is terminally ill (how stressful is that?!), and you're probably stressed about your weight as well as putting physical stress on your muscles. It's no wonder you're in pain! See what you can do about nurturing yourself and destressing where you can. Everyone needs different things - find out what you need, and do it. Hugs to you and best wishes.
If you've never read about stress studies and what it can do to the body, it's fascinating. You've heard of people's hair going gray overnight from extreme stress? Well, they've also documented a person's eye color changing!!!! SO MANY things can happen to your body when it's stressed, and it's stressed by pain. So be really good to yourselves.
Our bodies are delicate balance of healing chemicals and when something goes arye in our bodies, well, our bodies struggle to fix it with whatever healing body chemical we have that will hopefully rebalance our healing body chemicals! When our bodies have more than one "glitch" well our bodies can't balance out fast enough to offset the pain and symptoms!
It's kinda like taking a pill that is good for a bunch of symptoms! The pill can only pick the worst symptom and work on one thing at a time! If this imbalance is happening all the time because of chronic conditions and diseases, well ones body gets way to confused as to how to help itself and then sometimes it starts shutting down or other symptoms start popping up for example in a bad flare where the body is scrambling to heal itself and thus you get (Like I have now) a cold on top of everything else!
Then the whole imbalance of chemicals can all be WAY to overwhelming for the body too take and thus this is the reason why we get "overwhelmed" easy and such! Because one, we are going through this process ALL THE TIME and our body can't heal fast enough for all the many "glitches" we experience! Another reason is when your bodies healing chemicals are fighting for one part of the pain, then the other pain just runs rampant because nothing can be at all places at once! That's impossible! Even our bodies don't have that much healing chemicals in it! So it's like a car, if you leave the lights on all the time, eventually the battery will start draining and shutting off and the car starts not working correctly all over the engine!
Another thing that adds to the quote "frustration" and quote "anxiety" of it all is the fact we have people putting down our pain with demeaning comments and funny looks and hurtful comments such as the ones that are out in the media right now! It only ads to make people think less of our pain then they already do and that is a very hard thing to have to endure when we are truly going through sooooo much as it is!
That as well, can deplete our healing body chemical that manages stress! Because we are already being depleted in this area and many others daily by having a non-stop chronic condition!
If this is all going on in us on a constant basis how do we even have time to quote "search for things that are going wrong inside us?" Like one "journalist" wrote in an "article" that was posted here recently! Quite the opposite, because our bodies are screaming at us constantly!
I hope that made sense!
Take care,
Stay sane!
I have been sick most of my life and had 14 yrs of therapy for depression that stemmed from living with in an abusive relationship, never was I warned that my resentment towards this man could lead to FM. I am a very "resolution"oriented person , and have learned that over the hanging on to anger is destructive and think I do pretty well at letting it go. I don't have time nor the energy to stay mad.
I do hope and pray that the answers we all seek as to what/where this condition came from willbe found...but I don't think this is it.
Jessica
Her site looks like another false, filled site to me.. People like her have no clue about people like us.. Before I finally was diagnosed with this. I was into working out, health foods of all kinds, fasting, and worked as a Lift Driver witch I loved more than anything. And thrived on stress. Everyone handels stress different. But to tell me I have fibro from stress in my life. I think not...