In Control of my Fibro: Symptoms tracker, pacing advice and notebook for Fibromyalgia warriors

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Encourage your family and friends to learn more about your condition and to talk to you about it. You could show them this information. It’s especially important they understand how your pain affects you, even if you look well.

Stomach and Bowel Problems.People with fibromyalgia have a greater risk of developing irritable bowel syndrome than people without the condition. They are more likely to get bloated, feel cramping and stomach pain, or have episodes of constipation and diarrhea. NICE recommends an antidepressant, either amitriptyline, citalopram, duloxetine, fluoxetine, paroxetine or sertraline, to treat chronic pain. Exercise improves symptoms in a very high proportion of cases.. Aerobic exercises which cause very little pounding, such as walking, cycling and swimming, and resistance exercises (which are strengthening with no pounding impact at all) are thought to be best. Stretching exercises such as yoga may also help. Gradually increasing the amount of exercise (time and intensity) has been shown to have the best effect on fibromyalgia symptoms. If you’re finding work challenging because of your pain or tiredness, talk to your employer to discuss your options. Work can be a good thing for many reasons, such as keeping up your physical abilities, self-esteem, confidence, and social relationships. It’s worth looking into whether you can make some changes that can allow you to keep working. You may be able to make some adaptations to your workplace. Or you may be able to work flexible hours or have additional rest breaks to cope with fatigue. An occupational health adviser or therapist may be able to help you with this. Various other symptoms have been reported by people with fibromyalgia. The following are perhaps the most common, but it is not an exhaustive list of every possible symptom that may occur:There is a lot of evidence in favour of CBT although the trials themselves were not felt to be of high scientific quality, so EULAR cautiously recommended this treatment. It is unlikely to cause harm, but its benefit has not been clearly proved. Other therapies They report that 72% of Fibromyalgia sufferers also have the clinical features of myofascial pain. The clinical features of each are different so you may have difficulty explaining our pain to our doctor. Response to drugs and therapies is different for these syndromes, also. Jones GT, Atzeni F, Beasley M, et al. The prevalence of fibromyalgia in the general population: a comparison of the American College of Rheumatology 1990, 2010, and modified 2010 classification criteria. Arthritis Rheumatol 2015; 67(2):568–75. doi: 10.1002/art.38905 Fibromyalgia has so many other symptoms, you may not suffer with them all, nor will another sufferer. In other words none of us will be suffering in exactly the same way. Your doctor will not know how you are being affected unless you present him/her with a full picture. diarrhoea, constipation and stomach pain – sometimes separately diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Some people with fibromyalgia feel that, in offering them an antidepressant, their doctor is failing to appreciate that their main symptom is pain or is assuming their symptoms are imaginary or "all in their head". This isn't the case - the problem is that antidepressants are also anti-central (or brain) painbut that isn't reflected in their name. Antidepressant medicines are used to treat various conditions apart from depression. If you’re in pain, your instinct may be to avoid exercise or moving around too much. But keeping active is a really important part of the treatment for fibromyalgia and can prevent other health problems.If I’m going out, I try not to do too much the day before and after. Sometimes, I really don’t feel up to it, but my friends really understand. Sleep problems vary from person to person. Some find it hard to fall asleep or they wake up often during the night. Others wake up feeling unrefreshed, even after sleeping through the night. Research shows that poor sleep can worsen pain. These symptoms can cause people to confuse fibromyalgia with another condition called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It’s important to be physically active if you have fibromyalgia. This can be difficult if you’re in pain, but regular exercise has been shown to help reduce pain and improve overall quality of life. Joanne's Fibro Philosphy: "Each journey with this chronic illness is different, as of late doing my job is extremely tough. I just hope that it will become easier again sometime soon. My philosophy about it is ‘ be kind to yourself, only you know how much you can do, be patient with people who don’t understand, how could they possibly ?’" Fibromyalgia sufferers look to their GP for help. We may feel that we are not listened to or understood. It can be hard know how to explain the pain we are suffering. If we suffer from other issues such as arthritis, MS, lupus, etc., this makes it even harder. It is often very difficult for us to distinguish between the different problems and the arising pain, so how can we give a full picture to our GP.