Health & Diseases

Posts Tagged ‘Fibromyalgia’

First of all let me say this: no, I do not have fibromyalgia–for which I am eternally grateful! It’s no fun to have. I’m also not a rheumatologist, and if you have fibromyalgia–or “fibro” to its ‘friends’– you will probably want to see a rheumatologist.

I am a health psychologist–board certified, with 15+ years in a hospital pain clinic, so I do see and treat a lot of fibromyalgia. And I can tell you that seeing a rheumatologist won’t “fix” your fibro. Pills won’t, shots won’t, and no, as much as you might laughingly wish, surgery won’t either. You can’t have your head put on a new body–you’d still have the fibro-fog, anyway!

Fibromyalgia is a complex condition–probably a cluster of related conditions, actually–and ultimately, recovery demands changes to mind/brain/body interactions, if you want to deal with fibro effectively.

I haven’t found a general review of fibro that gives the whole story, and most of the books and even websites I’ve seen are too “victim” focused to be of much use. Yes, fibro is really real, a physical condition. And yes, you deserve compassion and respect. But shutting down your life, moving toward disability–those are not the answer. People actually get worse after disability.

Recovery takes work, but it’s possible. Recovery is the best answer.

Knowledge is the key if you want to recover. You will have to make long-term sustained behavior changes to restructure some unhealthy but well-established biochemical/neuronal /psychophysical interactions and get them working for you again.

Here’s a REALLY simplified picture of what happens, physically, to switch you into fibro-land. But while this is simplified, it is aqn accurate understanding of the basic process. It helps to understand what happened, and why.

The stress system has lots of protective functions, and one function is to shut down your immune system, so you can put all your energies into survival mode during an emergency. But when you’re stressed for too long, even if it’s at a fairly low level, your immune system gets tired of being told to shut down. So after a while it “pulls in its ears”, pulls in the receptors for the biochemical signals that tell it to shut down. And that leaves you with an immune system stuck on “on”. Low level ‘on’, but still on. And it never quite goes off.

You feel sick, achy; you want to go lie down and get well. Only no matter how long you lie down, you don’t really get better. You may have times with a low-grade fever. It can hurt to be touched. You don’t want to get up in the morning; you’re tired and sore, and you never feel perky and alert. Your sleep is a mess–probably because your stress system continues to “shout”, biochemically, messing up your calm-down-and-go-to-sleep processes, even though your immune system refuses to listen any more. You can’t remember what fresh and rested feels like–but then, you can’t remember anything.

Basically, nothing’s working right!

Fibromyalgia happens most often after years and years of long-term stress signals disrupting your body. I think of that as the “Grand Canyon style” development of fibromyalgia–years of stress erosion that just wears down your body and changes your brain. But I’ve also seen fibro happen post-traumatically, “Tsunami-style”. That’s when the stress is so overwhelming that it just roars in and changes the brain-function landscape overnight.

Incidentally–why do some people get fibro and other people get depression, or cancer, or heart disease or chronic back pain, or any other illness impacted by stress? I have no idea–and I do not see any evidence that any one else does either–yet! But we will!! And it won’t be long–the brain system research is amazing, and the field is growing daily.

No matter how you got here, though–you’re here now, if you have fibro. And your job is to get those systems working normally again.

No, we just don’t have medicine to really “fix” it, though some can help. Pain pills don’t cover it, and no, narcotic pain meds do NOT help–they actually do more damage to the systems inside, and eventually your pain will get worse. (And if you’re on Xanax, please get off! It also changes systems, actually increases anxiety and damages memory. It’s too high a price to pay for a momentary warm calm feeling, which I know it does deliver!)

So what should you do?

To get your physical systems working normally, you have to change the brain’s stress/relaxation systems, and keep them changed long enough for your neuronal pathways to re-establish new processes. Yes, your brain does re-build–but it takes time, and effort, to get it going in the right direction.

Here are the behavior changes that make a difference, per the research: exercise, eliciting the relaxation response (meditation), healthy thoughts and healthy relationships. And healthy sleep–but it takes a lot of the others to get to that one!!

Exercise washes out the old stress biochemicals. Lots of research on protective and restorative function. Meditation puts in more healthy new biochemicals. Lots of research on that, too, and much of it has been done directly with fibro. Healthy thoughts DO change biochemicals and physical processes, and keep them going in a healthy direction. (Healthy thoughts–positive, empowered, loving–books and books on this!) If you have any PTSD symptoms, you have to change that process, too. EMDR is the best plan for that. Treat your depression–and no, not just with anti-depressants. Those help for a while–but only psychologically-focused therapy helps long-term. ONLY! Really. And your goal is not just being ‘not depressed’, but actively choosing to be happy, to have FUN!

I know real bad stuff put you here. You’re not weak, it’s not your fault, and you didn’t just decide to have this. But it IS up to you to find the stuff that will get you out.

And you can.

You can read about these healthy behaviors, and should. And you can get most of it right here on the internet, as long as you focus on these healthy areas.

But it can also help to see a health psychologist, or a positive psychology therapist, or a trauma specialist if that’s needed too–lots of people have lots of useful information.

And it can all help. I’ve seen recovery happen, seen lives taken back. There is hope–hope for a good life, not just for more of your old ability to work yourself to death!