Fibromyalgia can be a frustrating disorder with no known cure. It effects roughly 3 to 6 percent of the populaltion causing pain and muscle fatigue. The physical sympotoms are not the only thing that fibro sufferers face. Due to the chronic pain, isolation and fatigue many fibormyalgia patients suffer from anxiety and depression. Today we will look at three practical healthy ways to do you fight depression in fibromyalgia.
People with fibromyalgia are three times more likely to have depression as one of the side effects. What actually is depression? According to Web M.D. depression is defined as
Sadness is a normal reaction to loss, life’s struggles, or an injured self-esteem. Depression surpasses sadness and becomes a problem that affects your whole life. People who are depressed commonly experience:
loss of pleasure in enjoyable activities
weight loss or gain
low energy
feelings of guilt
a sense of worthlessness
thoughts about death
These thoughts, physical changes, and feelings interfere with daily life.
Feelings of depression are common with all types of chronic pain including headaches, back pain, muscle pain, neck and hip pain, and the pain of fibromyalgia. Paitents who are depressed have greater pain. People with chronic pain such as fibromyalgia describe themselves as depressed and often times become isolated and spend more time away from other people; therefore they spend more time focused on their pain.
The first practical healthy way to fight depression in Fibromyalgia
The first practical healthy way to fight the mental health side of fibromyalgia is to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will have treatment plans that can help you manage the side effects of depression. Many times depression is lower levels of the chemical serotonin in your brain. There are medications that with the help of your doctor can adjust your brain’s serotonin levels to a normal level. There are also norepinephrine medications which can help with fibromyalgia and depression. Your doctor would be best able to find which is the healthy way to fight depression in fibromyalgia.
Find a Christian Counselor
The next key to a healthy way to fight depression in fibromyalgia is to find a christian counselor. There are many counselors who can help you walk through the thoughts and feelings behind fibromyalgia. There are so many times that as a fibromyalgia patient we do not want to burden our family and friends with how we feel physically, but discussing our pain with a stranger seems less burdensome. Discussing the things that overwhelm us can be a practical healthy way to fight depression in fibromyalgia.
You are not “crazy” for the things that you are feeling with fibromyalgia. Finding a professional counselor to discuss your feelings with can help you sort out your thoughts and concerns. The psycologist or counselor can help you sort out what you are feeling and help you find healthy alternatives to managing your thoughts.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the third practical healthy way to fight depression in fibromyalgia
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is a way to change the way you think about the pain of fibromyalgia and in turn how you deal with that pain. You take negative thinking and retrain your brain about the way you think about the pain your body feels. These thoughts are challenged, identified and replaced to a more objective and realistic view of the situation.
For fibromyalgia patients Cognitve Behavior Therapy has three phases. The first phase is education where the patient knows the facts of the condition versus the misunderstandings. Secondly, you learn skills for reduing pain like relaxation techniques, graded-activation, improving sleep habits, and “push-crash habits. The third phase of CBT is learning to apply what you have learned in therapy. Patient takes what they have learned in homework from phase two and applies it to real life senarios. Many patients find relief in cognitive behvior therapy methods.
Three practical healthy ways to fight depression in fibromyalgia are finding the right medication with your doctor, talking with a counselor, and cognitive behavior therapy. One of these or a combination them can help you fight the symptoms that depressions and anxiety bring a patient of fibromyalgia.