You can’t see fibromyalgia pain and symptoms, but they are real
The predominant model in healthcare is the biomedical model.
This model needs the observable and the measurable.
Yet the of pain fibromyalgia is neither observable nor measurable.
Well, you can try 0-10/10, but that doesn’t tell you much.
A problem arises now because there is nothing to see.
There are no specific tests for fibromyalgia.
The clinician using this model is now stumped. They have no explanation.
Things need to be seen to be real…
No!
Of course not.
No-one questions you when you say you love someone.
Or if you are hungry.
Neither love nor hunger are observable.
So why is it that people don’t believe when someone says they are in pain?
They think they know.
Misplaced confidence. They don’t know.
Only you know what it is like to be you, and how it feels.
Trying to express this and even justify it becomes a regular task.
People are frequently telling me that they have to prove their pain.
An additional, stressful, hoop to jump through.
This is a classic example of pain being misunderstood, and the problem this causes.
Fibromyalgia is still controversial for some…but it is getting less so…
Long Covid has raised awareness of conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
In part because a number of healthcare professionals contracted Long Covid and experience the symptoms, which are similar across these conditions.
Guidelines have been published that raise the profile and compel the medical profession to update beliefs and practices. For example, by the Royal College of Physicians.
There are of course a number of doctors and specialists who do recognise fibromyalgia and refer to appropriate clinicians and therapists who can help.
The charity Fibromyalgia Action UK publishes helpful documents and shares useful resources.
Their mission statement is, “to improve the lives of people with fibromyalgia by increasing awareness of the condition throughout the UK and elsewhere, and improve the awareness of, and access to treatments for fibromyalgia”.
Getting the right help is important.
Who should I see?
If this is new to you, then you should see your GP. You may like to ask them if they know about fibromyalgia and what they can do to help.
Your GP will check all the important details of your health.
In the next post I will talk about diagnostic criteria.
Often people are offered medication, and whilst sometimes pain relief can ease symptoms, it does not transform your experience sustainably.
For sustained improvements and getting better, you need skills and strategies, and of course the know-how.
How do I best use these skills in my life? How do I form habits that will bring the results I desire?
For this important work, how to live your life in such a way that you are getting better by living, you need to work with a healthcare professional who understands fibromyalgia, chronic pain and can guide and encourage you.
When you find someone who you think can help, ask them about their background and experience.
I have heard of people take more care deciding which outfit to buy rather than the healthcare professional they are seeing. That is no joke…
The lack of specialists is why I founded Pain Coaching, to meet the specific needs of people suffering chronic pain.
The approach must see you the person in your lived world
It is you that feels the pain and experiences the symptoms, not your body parts where you feel them.
As we progress through the Fibromyalgia 28 days, you will come to understand your pain.
When you understand your pain, the doors of opportunity open. You can see the way.
To focus on the area that hurts means you are not seeing the bigger picture. We must zoom out to understand, not zoom in.
As we have said and agree, your pain is always real, reflecting what is happening for you in that moment biologically and contextually (what is going on for you right now).
This is why people often say that when they feel better, their pain feels better.
Someone recently told me that they love fishing. When they are fishing, they are not in pain.
Why?
Because they are in a different state. There is no need for their body systems that generate the experience of pain to do so, because there is no need for protection.
Pain is all about protection and survival.
Your body systems’ main job is your survival, therefore it doesn’t take much for systems to generate pain if there is some evidence right now that there could be a threat to your integrity.
It is always about you as a whole (person) and not just where it hurts.
This is why stress typically causes pain to worsen. Stress is about a perceived threat, which means protection is necessary.
Even on a just in case basis.
Your body systems are doing their job. Keeping you alive.
It may not be a comfortable ride at times, but they are doing as they should until the possible or actual threat has passed.
There’s no mucking around when it comes to survival!
When this keeps happening through sensitivity that has arisen in the systems (nervous, immune and endocrine especially), the expectations change.
These are subconscious expectations, so you are not necessarily thinking it will hurt. Although you can, and this adds evidence to the picture making it more likely to be painful.
Your systems now expect and predict pain in certain situations.
Until you create evidence that it can be different — that’s the process of getting better.
You learn to live yourself better with habits that take you in the direction you want to go. To get results you want!
And that’s why you need skills, strategies and know-how rather than fixing.
You don’t need fixing!
More on understanding pain next time.
Other symptoms
As we established on Day 1, there are a range of symptoms.
Another major symptoms and cause of suffering is fatigue.
Your body has gone into an energy saving mode!
This also ties in with depression and a lack of motivation.
Your systems have pulled the budget back, so you reach your tolerance sooner now.
Managing and building your energy is a key skill.
As you are hopefully starting to see, we need to understand you and the bigger picture to help you.
There is just one experience of what it is like to be you.
There is no separation of body and mind, or even a connection.
Just one experience.
The one we seek to shape harnessing impermanence and small habits as you step towards your picture of success.
I hope that is helpful.
See you tomorrow.
r.s.
Resources
🚀 What is Pain Coaching? https://richmondstace.com/what-is-pain-coaching-for-chronic-pain/
⚡️ About me: https://richmondstace.com/about/
🚚 My daily newsletter to understand and overcome pain: https://open.substack.com/pub/richmondstace
📖 My book, Understand and Overcome your Chronic Pain: https://amzn.eu/d/hJm0hdG
🎥 Pain in the Person ~ a short film: https://youtu.be/zidJbZHEGzM
🎙️ Podcast: https://youtu.be/nEa3UHb0Gos?si=QZuvP9541jzLz0UT