What is Fybromyalgia?
Chronic pain conditions affect 43% of the UK population. That's around 28,000,000, (twenty eight million), according to the British Pain Society, and 14.3% of the population experience some form of disability due to their chronic pain condition. This is a HUGE problem, and one that the NHS has limited resources or answers to tackle.
Fybromyalgia is on of the most common causes of chronic pain conditions, around 2,800,000 sufferers in the UK alone (fybromyalgiasyndrom.co.uk), around 4.5% of the population.
Women account for between 80 and 90% of the sufferers, with men being 10 to 20%. It is more common that rheumatoid arthritis, although slightly less common than osteoarthritis, and can be significantly more painful and disabling, yet there is little understanding or support in allopathic medical care.
It is characterized by widespread pain that can not attributed to a specific cause, such as injury or disease, and profound fatigue. Most sufferers discover that analgesic (pain killing), medication has very short and limited action, if any at all.
Similar to ME/CFS, diagnosis requires firstly ruling out all other possible causes of pain, and then meeting the criteria that pain is experienced in all four quadrants of the body, and at least 11 of the 18 specific points on the body are painful when pressed. These points are unlikely to enter the patients awareness until they are pressed. Click here to be taken to a chart of the official "Pain Points Chart"
While the condition appears to be mysterious in its origins, we know that there is ALWAYS trauma in the sufferers past and or present. The trauma may be physical, but is always psychological.
Trauma is not necessarily what we consider a significant event such as war, sexual abuse or violence. Dr Patricia Worbys book, The Scar That Won't Heal provides powerful insights, as does the work of Dr Gabor Mate
Trauma is any event or experience that creates a wound in a person, that they are unable to fully address, heal and recovery from. So, for example, about 20% of any population are "Highly Sensitive Person(s)", we are genetically a little different. To an HSP, not having our needs met, especially as infants and children, can be a traumatic experience that scars us. This may be as simple as being left to cry as an infant. This is trauma, and can lead to significant drop in life expectancy. For more information on this, read up on the ACE Study, one of many possible places to start is here.
It all sounds rather bleak and hopeless, and most who have been through conventional medical care will agree that there is no hope of recovery - and I agree when all that is offered is all the NHS can provide.
BUT THERE IS HOPE!
FULL RECOVERY IS NOT JUST POSSIBLE, WITH THE RIGHT HELP AND GUIDANCE AND COMMITMENT FROM YOU, RECOVERY IS YOURS TO ENJOY!
Perhaps it is time to look at what pain is costing you in terms of loss of earnings, paying for support and help in the home, loss of relationships, loss of joy, maybe you've seen a few practitioners who claim to be able to help you to full recovery, but they haven't had the specialist training I and my colleagues have, and they didn't have a multidisciplinary specialist team to support you, in conjunction with The Chrysalis Effect recovery program
Perhaps its time to invest in proven value for money, proven value for life, and a track record of success stories.