We all experience pain at least once in our lives, regardless of whether it is a physical kind of pain or an emotional one.
And yet, when both physical pain and emotional pain get together and when they affect every day of one’s life, it can be more than just uncomfortable.
For millions of Americans and people all over the world, this is a sad reality. Fibromyalgia may not take your life in the literal sense of the word, but it can place you in a bed from which you are not able to come out simply because the pain is too much to handle.
Fibromyalgia can be terrible to deal with and it can be downright confusing both for you as a patient and for your doctor.
Why Is Fibromyalgia So Complicated?
Fibromyalgia is, without any trace of doubt, one of the most complex and least understood medical conditions we know of. There is so little we understand about the way in which this condition develops and installs itself in the body that it can be absolutely baffling even to put the right diagnosis.
In fact, there are still many medical professionals refusing to accept the fact that fibromyalgia is real. There are many celebrities who have come out to speak about this condition and there has been a high level of media coverage to raise awareness, but even so, there are still many skeptics out there.
On top of that, fibromyalgia shows such a large array of symptoms and it can behave so differently in different people that putting the wrong diagnosis happens too often. Myofascial pain syndrome, arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome – these are among the things people are very commonly diagnosed with when their primary condition is fibromyalgia.
Sensitivity to foods, medication, light, odors, irritable bowels and bladder, headaches, depression, anxiety, insomnia, restless leg syndrome and, in some cases, even cognitive issues (which are commonly referred to as “fibro fog”) – all these symptoms (and more) can appear together with the widespread chronic pain that can get debilitating at times.
What about Treatment?
There is no cure for this syndrome and it cannot be prevented either. Fibromyalgia’s causes are unknown currently and even if certain risk factors are now being taken into consideration, the truth is that no research has been able to point out the exact cause of fibromyalgia.
Genetics, for example, appear to play an important role in the way in which this syndrome develops especially since there are studies showing that there is greater likelihood that one gets fibromyalgia when his/her parents or relatives had it too.
But even if certain genes have been studied and “blamed” to be responsible for fibromyalgia, they cannot be attributed directly to this syndrome since they can be connected to other medical conditions too.
The only treatment patients have is that which targets at their symptoms, not at their condition’s cause. The Food and Drug Administration has approved three types of drugs to treat fibromyalgia, but their effectiveness is not explained properly.
They can, indeed, alleviate the pain, the fatigue and other symptoms too, but scientists have not yet been able to explain exactly why they are efficient.
Lyrica, Cymbalta and Savella (the three FDA approved drugs for treating fibromyalgia) all show side effects. Cymbalta and Savella are anti-depressants in nature, which means that they will most likely show side effects similar to those of the anti-depressives: sleepiness or insomnia, weight gain or weight loss, suicidal thoughts, sweatiness and so on.
Lyrica was initially approved to treat nerve pain, shingles rashes and seizures, but it too shows side effects so it is probably the best to try to understand these before taking the drug (or any other type of medicine, for that matter).
Relaxation: Is This Really the Key to Successfully Treating Fibromyalgia?
Among the schools of thought regarding the cause that leads to fibromyalgia, there is a particular one which believes that fibromyalgia is mainly caused by stress and stressful events. According to them, things such as living a stressful life, living in a stressful and abusive relationship, an accident, losing someone you love or any other event of this type can trigger fibromyalgia’s development in your body.
Thus, the theory according to which relaxation could be an effective tool against pain, fatigue, depression and the other fibromyalgia symptoms does make sense at least from this point of view. However, which are the best relaxation techniques and why are they recommended? Here are some things you may want to keep in mind:
1- Meditation can take your thoughts off pain and off the other symptoms experienced together with it. Learning how to meditate is easy and it can be extremely relaxing even if you don’t necessarily suffer from fibromyalgia or other medical conditions.
2- Yoga can be practiced as a relaxation technique too. There are poses meant to relax the body and the mind and the fact that they also help you stretch your overly sensitive muscles can indeed be a great thing for your fibromyalgia pain.
3- Believe it or not, simply taking a warm bath can help. Try to add essential oils for relaxation (such as lavender, which has almost magical properties when it comes to insomnias, muscle stiffness and muscle cramps).
4- Light up some scented candles or some incense sticks. There are aromas out there which have the power to relax us. Same as with the essential oils added to the bath (which can also be burned as well), lighting up some scented candles or incense sticks can help you relax much better and it can help you take your mind off the pain.
5- Turn on the music. There is no greater and more powerful art than music! Without being touchable, music has the power to send us emotional messages and it has the power to relax us like nothing else. Listen to chill out music, to classical music or to instrumental music and you will be able to relax and give your pain a “break” too.
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