Fibromyalgia is a condition characterized by musculoskeletal pain, memory, sleep, mood, and fatigue issues.
Additionally, fibromyalgia disorder affects how your spinal cord and brain process non-painful and painful signals. It is said to amplify painful sensations.
Typically, its symptoms begin after certain events, including significant psychological stress, infection, surgery, or physical trauma.
Over time, fibromyalgia symptoms may graduate even without any triggering event. Many individuals who experience this condition have TMJ (temporomandibular joint) disorder, tension headaches, depression, anxiety, and irritable bowel syndrome.
While your specialist may recommend some medications to help you control the symptoms, fibromyalgia disorder has no cure. In addition, stress-reduction measures, relaxation, and exercise will help you control fibromyalgia disorder symptoms.
Now, if you know a friend or a family member with this condition, there is something you should avoid saying to them. That is because this makes them feel worse and causes painful feelings.
The following article will help you learn what you should avoid talking about with Fibromyalgia patients.
Symptoms
Some of the common symptoms related to fibromyalgia include:
Fatigue
While people dealing with fibromyalgia often sleep for long hours, they also report fatigue. Their long sleep is usually disrupted by pain. Additionally, they also report sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome.
Widespread Pain
Typically, people with this disorder experience constant pain. The pain usually lasts for more than three months affecting both the sides of your body and below and above your waist.
Cognitive Difficulties
This symptom is commonly known as fibro fog. It usually impairs your ability to pay attention, concentrate, and focus on mental tasks.
It Doesn’t Hurt That Bad
Typically, people with this disorder experience severe pain. Most people usually assume it does not hurt that much because patients with this disorder can sleep without writhing in pain.
However, this doesn’t seem right. People with fibromyalgia struggle to wake up and doing what they can because they have to.
Additionally, they learn how to tolerate the high painful experience compared to ordinary people. This is the only option they have.
You Need to Manage Your Stress
There are indeed links between pain and stress. However, this is not a cure for fibromyalgia. For people with this condition, learning how to handle their stress will only help them improve their fatigue and stress.
Generally, the pain caused by this condition is stressful in itself, and it is usually hard to lower it.
Now, telling a person dealing with this condition to reduce stress will make their situation worse. In most cases, this triggers and reminds them of their stress levels and how it is challenging to lower them.
Try to Get It Out Of Your Head
While there is no conclusive evidence of the real cause of this condition, it doesn’t make it less real. It is therefore essential to understand that fibromyalgia is real and the painful experiences are also real.
Additionally, medical reports that fibromyalgia is not only related to the head, so when talking to such people, let it stick in your mind that they are not just making it up or imagining it.
Just Ignore It
There has been a myth that you can work through fibromyalgia or ignore it, and they will disappear with time. However, this is not true.
Most fibromyalgia patients spend some years trying to push it through and ignore it before they start looking for a solution for the pain. Additionally, some even continue to ignore it only to going out that it is making matters worse.
It Is a Common Condition with Women
There is a misconception that fibromyalgia is a common disorder in women. The fact is that both men and women can suffer this condition.
While most people think that women want attention, but this is not true, understand that they would love to ignore it, they can’t.
I Also Experience Pain and Aches
Of course, everyone gets pains and aches. However, fibromyalgia or other chronic pains are more than feeling pains and aches. The pain related to fibromyalgia is more than a normal backache or a headache following a busy day.
Additionally, you can only imagine or understand the intensity of fibromyalgia pain unless you experience it. Or imagine the fatigue and pain you go through when you have the flu and never going away.
For this reason, it would be wise to never compare the random pains and aches to what fibromyalgia patients live with.
Try Something I Read about Fibromyalgia
You might read something from various platforms and think it can help someone living with fibromyalgia. Chances are they have also read and tried it out, or they are currently doing or taking it.
Additionally, most people try to research the available treatments or best doctors to treat their condition with such a condition.
While fibromyalgia patients appreciate your concern and care and wish them to feel better, this doesn’t improve their situation. Also, understand that they are trying their best to feel better.
Why Can’t You Try A Certain Medication I Saw On Tv?
Most people believe most of the commercials that they see on TVs, especially those related to health.
Those commercials usually imply that everything shall be ok and that you will overcome fibromyalgia by taking the fibromyalgia medications. However, this is not true as they yield no positive results.
Most people spend years trying all the available medications, and all they get are terrible results that usually affect them negatively.
The pharmaceuticals that give positive results offer about 30% improvement results to approximately 30% of fibromyalgia patients.
I Hope It’s Not Serious
This is something else you should never say to someone who has fibromyalgia. As mentioned earlier, most people don’t understand how fatal chronic pain or fibromyalgia pain is.
In some cases, people suffer intense pain to the point of committing suicide. Therefore, just because a person is living with this condition does not mean their situation is not fatal.
Exercise Is All You Need
Regular exercise is another misconception regarding fibromyalgia, as most people think it results from inadequate exercise. But this isn’t true. Even competition runners suffer from fibromyalgia conditions.
Although it is healthy to stretch our muscles, the wrong type and too much exercise may worsen the fibromyalgia symptoms.
You Just Look Fine
Another thing that can hurt the feelings of someone with fibromyalgia is a comment on how they look based on their health. And this is the same for people suffering from other conditions like cancer, Fibro, migraines, or Lupus; never tell them how they look.
Causes of Fibromyalgia
As stated above, there are no proven causes of fibromyalgia. However, many medics believe that nerve stimulation leads to spinal cord and brain changes for fibromyalgia patients’.
Most of these changes involve increasing certain brain chemicals, thus interfering with how your body processes pain.
Additionally, the brain’s receptors also develop a memory of pain-causing an overreaction to non-painful and painful signals. Some of the factors that may lead to such changes include:
Emotional and Physical Events
Sometimes fibromyalgia can be a result of prolonged psychological events such as stress. Additionally, physical events like car accidents can also trigger fibromyalgia.
Genetics
Fibromyalgia tends to have roots in some families. This means that there can be some genetic mutations making you more vulnerable to developing fibromyalgia.
Infections
Generally, some infections tend to aggravate or trigger fibromyalgia.
Typically, a person might look great from the outside, but that is not the actual reflection of their situation.
So, if you have a friend or someone you love and have fibromyalgia, never talk to them about these things as they could develop resentment towards you.
Additionally, these things could hurt their feeling, possibly destroying your relationship.
