Since I’ve been getting back into the swing of things with blogging, I have neglected to write about fibromyalgia. Do you know there was actually a time where I wrote about fibromyalgia and chronic illness every single Friday? I did that for a LONG time, actually. I slacked up on my blogging and I discussed fibromyalgia less and less. There’s actually a good reason for that.
My symptoms had been, for the most part, manageable. All of those posts where I was trying different treatments weren’t in vain: I actually discovered that changing my routine, supplementing effectively, and learning the best physical activity for my body could effectively reduce my symptoms from devastating to only slightly annoying (a major improvement!) But, to be clear, fibromyalgia is a lifelong condition: a stressful situation, or a series of difficult events, can easily trigger my symptoms and undo a lot of the progress I’ve made. I recall how post-viral syndrome caused me to experience deconditioning (rapidly losing progress towards my physical wellness) after having the flu for a couple of weeks. Up until early this year, I had been managing life pretty well overall. However, life would have different plans for me. In February, I had a really bad flare that negatively impacted my mental health. Additionally, a heart-to-heart conversation with a good friend enlightened me and helped me identify the fact that I had unaddressed trauma that desperately needed my attention.
As a result, I had to take time to really start working on the dumpster fire that was my mental health, so that I could avoid the inevitable physical effects of being emotionally unwell. When you’re actively working on wellness, you don’t always have time to log your process and progress (I’ve tried that before, both on this blog and on my Fibro Friday vlogs: I get better results when I focus on wellness first, then report results much later). So I spent the majority of this year untangling various emotional blocks and trauma, working to resolve those core issues so that I can desensitize my triggers and reduce the likelihood of an emotional event progressing into a physical one.
I don’t make it a point to constantly talk about fibromyalgia in my daily life, so I don’t always write or vlog about it. It’s a central part of my life so I can’t ignore it, but I don’t discuss it all the time. But, just because I’m not talking about it doesn’t mean I’m not working on it. The more I take care of myself, the more I uncover better ways to heal the damage that is at the root of my condition. And I feel it is my responsibility to share what works, so that if there are people out there looking for solutions, they can explore what I’m doing and see if it helps them. I’m not a doctor and this isn’t medical advice, but I’m a real person, trying different things and seeing how I can live a normal life with chronic illnesses. On my journey, I’ll share what I learn and hope that my experience can help someone else dealing with medical issues.
That all being said, there will be more Fibro Friday content in the coming weeks. I had my annual lab work done recently, and I have my annual physical in just a few days, so I’ll be discussing how my health is going in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, here is a Fibro Friday video from this year, discussing nervous system sensitivity and fibromyalgia:
