Posted 12/8/2014 3:55 AM (GMT 0)
Benny,
On the day you were feeling well, what were your thought patterns? I have a hunch they were probably positive and upbeat. I bet today when symptoms started your thoughts went negative immediately. Fibro and anxiety are tricky , oh so tricky. You have to get really good at acceptance and floating with whatever they throw your way. It is on these crazy symptom days there is a FORK in the road. If you branch off to the left, you will spiral down the road of negativity and add stress chemicals to your body such as cortisol and adrenaline plus a host of other chemicals to keep you anxious and keep the strange symptoms and pain continuing. It is a vicious cycle Benny, more pain equals more anxiety and more anxiety equals more pain.
On these bad days you need to start trying to take the path to the right. This is where you use positive self talk and affirmations to make yourself feel better. I am in NO WAY saying this is all in your head. Because your symptoms are very much real. What I am saying is that when the pain and strange symptoms start That is when you need to be less affected by them. This is not easy changing the way you think about how you are feeling, in fact it takes a lot of work and practice and will probably be one of the hardest things you've ever had to do. But the reward of feeling better than you do now will be so worth it.
True acceptance is knowing that no matter what fibro and anxiety throw at you, you know you will be ok.
So if you wake up in the morning and lets say it feels like someone is ripping your flesh off instead of saying , Oh know here it is again, I cant stand this, today is going to be terrible, I feel so hopeless with this condition, I am never going to feel better again, whats the point in trying. Great now the aching is setting in, I'm not going to have a good day at all, I can not handle this, this is terrible, How am I going to get through the day or even the next hour? (How does that make you feel reading that? It makes me feel terrible writing it!!)
So why then would you do this to yourself? You deserve better than that.
So....instead of saying all that... you need to use self talk that is more compassionate to yourself and truthful and empowering. More like ahhhh ok good morning fibro, I see you are trying to make me feel bad again with that flesh feeling, well guess what? you have made me feel this way before so it doesn't scare me anymore. I will not be tricked by this anymore. I can handle this and I am ok. So knock it off. Oh, I see you're going to start the body aching thing as well. BORING....is that really all you have? Really? pathetic!! not gonna let that bother me. I am ok. I am going to have a good day today. I have things to do and I am going to get at it. This fibro fog is just a symptom to scare me. I am just going to slow down and form my thoughts and push through it. Its no big deal really, it will eventually lift.
You may have to do this a thousand times a day Benny for several days or weeks, but the more you practice it the better you get at it and the more you can control your symptoms and discomfort. Imagine your friend or child or partner telling you how bad they feel. Wouldn't you say things to them that are encouraging and supportive and try to make them feel better? Of course you would. So you have to learn to do this to yourself. You have to be that friend to yourself and practice practice practice positive self talk until it becomes natural.
Is this going to cure your fibro? No of course not. but it is going to put you on the road to thinking positive. Being positive with any chronic condition is half the battle. I am willing to say it is the most important thing in your tool box for living with this. So do practice this please because you can and deserve to feel better than you do.
Take care,
Michael