Typified by widespread pain, fatigue, poor sleep, “fibro fog” or concentration and memory problems, anxiety/depression, numbness, tingling, IBS, menstrual issues, morning stiffness, etc etc etc.
The jury is still out on why it happens, but the winning theory is an accumulation of physical and/or psychological traumas and/or infection in genetically predisposed people.
We understand that it is an over-sensitisaion of nerve pathways. Your brain receives credible evidence of threat to your body, and as a protective mechanism it sends out strong pain signals. Pain is your brain’s opinion of how much danger you are in, and in the case of this disease we suspect it is being sent lots of curly messages.
- Faulty pain blocking pathways
- An incapacity to filter out irrelevant sensory information, for example how you don’t notice wearing a watch
- Require less stimulus to fire nerve signals, processing harmless stimuli as noxious ones.
- Less opioid receptors in the brain.
- Functional MRIs also show that FM sufferers have much greater activity levels in the areas of the brain that process painful stimuli.
This is a complex syndrome. I understand how frustrating and emotional it must be to have a disease that people cannot SEE, or UNDERSTAND, or BELIEVE. While we don’t have all the answers yet, you should feel validated knowing that there is very strong evidence for pathology of the nervous system. When we understand that pain is contextual, and fibromyalgia is your central nervous system hyper-vigilantly looking for danger, we can tailor evidenced based treatments to reduce those danger signals and manage your pain better.
My first priority with patients is education, as research shows us how much more likely we are to cope well with something when we understand it. That relates to acute sprains as well. My next priority is working together for sustainable and realistic goals to get you moving and living better. That may include lifestyle advice, drugs, supplements, passive therapies (like massage), counselling, exercises.
If you resonate with any of these symptoms, seek out a diagnosis with a therapist who is holistic and who is happy to collaborate with other therapies to find what works best for you and your specific pain puzzle.
