The Struggle is Real. Fibromyalgia Is a Very Real Disease

Patients with fibromyalgia may look just fine on the outside, but on the inside, they are suffering from the pain all over their body. It becomes hard to stand up or sit down, patients also risk falling. Their mind is cloudy with depressing thoughts, and they have enough of the people giving them side glances and glares.

Mood disturbance, anxiety or depression affects almost 30 percent of those with fibromyalgia. There are no studies that determine if fibromyalgia causes depression and anxiety or if these emotions cause fibromyalgia.

No matter. Medical professionals can verify that when your mental state can no longer take your physical pain, your physical pain increases, you get depressed, and the circle goes around and around. It might be a good idea to ask your doctor for a referral to a psychologist, counselor, psychiatrist, or even a pain clinic to help you with the relief you so need.

Fibromyalgia is a difficult condition to diagnosis and experience. Symptoms are varied and impact your life in more ways than one. Fatigue and pain alone are enough to affect your lifestyle negatively, but the pain always affects moods. Take control of your symptoms. You need to employ a multi-disciplinary approach and incorporate medications, physical therapy, and psychology.

What is fibromyalgia?

Defined by the dictionary, medical science claims fibromyalgia as pain in your musculoskeletal system. You experience sleep problems, fatigue, mood and memory issues; fibromyalgia is a lifestyle changer. The Mayo Clinic suggests that fibromyalgia intensifies pain feelings by changing the way your brain handles pain signals.

Symptoms can occur after physical trauma, infections, surgery, or psychological stress. Symptoms may also accumulate over time with no triggering event. There is no cure for fibromyalgia, but different medication, as well as relaxation, exercise, and stress reduction techniques, may help.

Anxiety and depression

Before you sink down on your couch in a mass of depression and anxiety, we need to understand the difference between stress and anxiety is and what it means to your condition.

Sadness characterizes depression. It is extreme and often chronic – everything just makes you sad. A bad day at work, a fight with a significant other, or just a gloomy day can bring on depression. This is situational depression, and real, chronic depression is much more significant. Chronic depression tends to last for years.

You might be one who handles depression by being angry, lying in bed all day, or stuffing yourself with food. The key is to ask yourself, “Is this my normal life? Have I always been this way? Call your doctor and get some help if you have these thoughts.

Characterize anxiety as being a condition that includes all-consuming feelings of fear, panic, and over-excessive worry. Often you feel as if your heart is racing and you begin to think you are having a heart attack.

Read on to learn more about how anxiety and depression can affect fibromyalgia negatively.