Healthy tips for living with Fibromyalgia
My advice for living with fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread pain and fatigue, with no known cause, a variety of different symptoms, and no one-size-fits-all treatment. I consider myself very fortunate in that I do not take medicine, I rarely take sick days, and I have managed to carry on with changes to my lifestyle. Today I am going to offer you my top tips with links to more reading on each tip.
Fatigue is a debilitating, all encompassing feeling of exhaustion.
This guest post has been written by Ann-Marie D’Arcy-Sharpe, a Pain Educator and Blogger at Pathways Health Ltd. She and I both live with Fibromyalgia; she also lives with Arthritis and Bipolar disorder. Her article is so timely for me, as I have been suffering from the daily fatigue that comes with living with our condition. Please enjoy reading her tips!
One of the primary symptoms of fibromyalgia, along with widespread pain, is fatigue. Fatigue is a debilitating, all encompassing feeling of exhaustion. Personally I find fatigue one of the most difficult symptoms of fibromyalgia to live with and to push through. It can feel as though your entire body is being weighed down. Every action feels like an extreme effort. It can even make you feel as though you’re thinking through a fog.
We’re all individuals so we will each experience our symptoms, including fatigue, in different ways and to different degrees. My fatigue is a symptom I experience daily, even when my pain levels and other symptoms are well managed. Over time I’ve had to learn how to cope with fatigue so that I can function in the best way I can in spite of it. I wanted to share five coping tips I hope could be useful for other fibromyalgia warriors.
Continue reading “Fibro Fatigue: 5 Coping Tips”Holistic health focuses on the whole person rather than individual illness or specific body parts.
As fibromyalgia is a complex and poorly understood syndrome, with no defined cause, I have found that doctors are more inclined to just treat symptoms. Years ago I became disillusioned and weary of the medical approach of prescribing medication for symptoms, rather than trying to get to the root cause of various health problems, so I started taking more control of my own health journey (read more: Becoming Your Own Health Advocate). I want to share how I approach my health and fibromyalgia holistically.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying my approach will work for anyone else, let alone everyone else. We are all individuals with different ailments, pain levels and thresholds, environments, and situations. I am just sharing my approach to managing my fibromyalgia to minimize flares and the disruption to daily life. And first, you have to understand what I mean by “holistic.”
Continue reading “A Holistic Approach to Fibromyalgia”“Holistic health is actually an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific body parts…[it] considers the whole person.”
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Grief can be so overwhelming that the hardest thing to muster is hope and strength.
I have been trying to write this post for many months now, but have been consumed by grief, a lack of creativity, and no desire to write.
Grief takes on many forms when you have chronic pain or a chronic illness, like fibromyalgia. You might be grieving the person you used to be, the life you used to have, or all of the things you used to be able to do.
Any loss can be profound and all-consuming. Even life-changing.
Continue reading “Grief and Fibromyalgia”
My Inspired Fibro Life 