Fighting Fibromyalgia Pain Through a Positive Outlook

One of the most debilitating symptoms of fibromyalgia is chronic pain, as it can be mentally and physically draining and have a negative impact on almost every part of daily life. People who suffer from chronic pain due to fibromyalgia will often report that their pain prevented them from going to work, preparing meals or from playing with their kids.  When dealing with chronic pain, hearing the words “It’s all in your head” can be frustrating, however there are a few ways to combat this pain that others cannot see.

A newly released definition of pain has legitimized the relationship between chronic pain and a person’s emotional state.  The International Association for the Study of Pain has defined pain as “the unpleasant sensory and emotional experience.” 

This recent revelation has been made because researchers found that pain is actually processed through the same side of the brain that processes emotions.  This discovery allows medical professionals to help those with diseases that can cause chronic pain like fibromyalgia, to design a well-rounded treatment plan that deals with all aspects of the disorder and the chronic pain itself.

Fibromyalgia is one of those mystery diseases that are causes widespread pain throughout the body.  It can also affect sleep, memory and even the emotional state of its sufferers.  Although it is still being widely studied, doctors believe that fibromyalgia pain is caused by the way the patient’s brain actually processes pain signals.  There is no known cause for the autoimmune disease but researchers have found links between fibromyalgia, sometimes referred to as fibro, and traumatic events, stress and even genetics.  Sometimes the symptoms appear and slowly progress with no reason at all until the patient needs to seek medical intervention.  Because fibromyalgia has a collection of signs and symptoms and because there is no known cause, it is considered a syndrome.  Unfortunately, it’s the kind of syndrome that can take months and sometimes even years to be diagnosed.

Acute pain vs. chronic pain

Fibromyalgia causes chronic pain, which is different from acute pain.  Acute pain is typically triggered by an injury, like say, a broken bone.  Pain is felt quickly and is usually very intense. Acute pain can easily be relieved with the use of painkillers and other treatments - like stabilizing the broken bone, ice and rest.  Chronic pain is what happens after the injury has healed.  Since the brain has excellent muscle memory, it can remember the pain caused by an injury and continues to send those little pain signals to the injured area, which is what chronic pain is.

Pain inducing conditions like fibromyalgia generates pain signals even in the absence of a physical injury.  Added to this, is the fact that fibromyalgia also affects a patient’s emotions and since the pain and emotion sensors hang out together in the brain, they listen to the same signals. In other words, pain causes the patient to feel out of sorts and even a little blue, this is often referred to as pain-induced depression. Feeling blue triggers more pain signals to target different parts of the body, and the cycle would only continue.