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Fibromyalgia Pain Management - A Different Approach - Page 2

© Steve Lloyd

we're doing, cancel what we were about to do, pop a fistful of medication and go to bed. Wrong move - the pain has just won the round without throwing a punch, and you have just slipped a little further into inactivity. Also, because you realize you have given in too easily, you get angry with yourself, tense up and, guess what? ... Yup, you give yourself more pain. The whole thing is a vicious circle that results in you being progressively less active and in more pain. Not a good idea!! We were taught a number of ways to break the circle, the king amongst these was our old friend "Pacing".

Streeeetch ............!

As a group, we indulged in a daily regime of stretching and gentle mobility exercise, having been taught the right way to do things. We were taught how to measure our own personal tolerances (simple and obvious, really), and how to design a progressive exercise regime without going anywhere near the "danger zone". The whole thing is designed to get us to think about our capabilities and limits before we start anything, and to plan tasks accordingly.

I can hear some of you saying to yourselves "But every time I move it hurts, so any exercise is going to cause me more damage". Well, that's understandable, but there is a fundamental difference between acute and chronic pain that makes it OK to do exercise like this. Basically, acute pain is relatively short lived and is directly associated with damage to the bit that hurts. If you exercise a damaged bit that is telling you that it is damaged (like a broken leg, etc.), then, OK, you are probably going to do some harm. However, where chronic pain is concerned, it is not directly associated with damage, the pain signals come from a different source, and therefore it is safe (and many medics say "essential") to exercise. The trick is to recognize a change in the pain sensation. That is likely to indicate an over-exertion of something, and is the body's natural "slow down" or "stop" signal. Anyway, my personal experience of this is that exercise within your own tolerance limits will have a dramatically positive effect upon the way you feel and behave in your daily life.

Would you like to reduce or stop your medication?? (Does the Pope have a balcony ??)

We had a number of lively discussion sessions with one of the hospital

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