A New Century; a Time to Place Ourselves First

We have now entered the year 2000, and with it comes a multitude of chronic illnesses, some of which have no known cause nor one specific cure. With fibromyalgia, many doctors and lay persons have formulated what they believe to be the cause and have even suggested specific cures. Emotional factors, stress, poor diet, lack of exercise, a type A personality, environmental factors, genetics, and even a lack of a well defined spiritual life have all been blamed on people developing fibromyalgia. If these factors were all true, then there would be many more people developing fibromyalgia.

Throughout the past few years, many of us have been told what to do to "cure" fibromyalgia. We've been told what to eat, how much to exercise, and which suppliments or other alternative methods to use in order to relieve our symptoms of pain and fatigue.

As more physicians become frustrated with trying to diagnosis someone who appears in their office complaining of pain and fatigue, many of them will just give their patients the diagnosis of fibromyalgia and send them on their way with antidepressants, advice to slow down, and to do mild exercise. For a physician who is trained to diagnose disease, it is difficult at times to stop and listen to their patients who are living with a chronic condition. Fibromyalgia is not a disease, but rather a syndrome, and yet it can be just as disabling as having one of the many diseases which seem to receive more understanding and empathy from both physicians and lay persons alike.

As we enter a new century, we can either continue to try every new product that we hear about via our friends, family, or on the internet, or we can take this new year to place ourselves first. If our primary physician is unwilling to listen or prescribe pain killers due to his/her fear of addiction, then it is time to change physicians. In some instances, this can be difficult. However, if we want to be treated as individuals who are living with a chronic condition, we may need to become assertive about our particular needs. If family, friends, or even online contacts seem to be demanding more of our time and energy than we can give, we need to let them know that although we do care about them, we need to place our own needs first.

Our own needs may be as simple as taking time away from the demands of others, and focusing upon what we really want to do with each new day. We may want to spend a day alone, or visiting with a special friend, but the choice is ours alone.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic