Some people with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia feel pain sooner than people who do not have those illnesses. Also, their pain lasts significantly longer. Doctor's call that longer-lasting pain "windup pain." What happens with most people who experience a mild pain is that they suffer briefly, and then the pain degrades and is soon gone. But often people with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia have an amplified pain that stays with them longer.
They have a lowered pain threshold. Experiences that wouldn't bother others may cause pain to them, even something as normally benign as the cat rubbing up against a leg. A handshake or hug can be excruciatingly painful. Folks like myself (dermatamyositis) who are extremely photosensitive find that sunlight is horribly painful and feels like a billion needles entering your body all over; even florescent lighting hurts - and both sunlight and florescent lights immediately turn your skin a horrible purple color....yuck...Heat can also cause pain and flare-up with the distinctive rashes.
The single most important thing a person with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia can learn is how to manage and minimize their pain that comes with the illnesses, rather than fight it and make things worse.
When your pain is at it's worse, when you feel that your hopes and dreams are put on hold and you wonder if you will ever be able to participate in the activities of life again - do not be frozen by the pain and fear and wait for things to change.
If you wait for the pain to go away, you will never get your life back. Pursue your dreams, and follow your hopes. There will always be days of pain, but there will be days when the pain is not so bad; but no matter what kind of day it is - LIVE it and LOVE it.
Changing your "painful habits" will help you feel better. Try replacing an old, painful habit with a new, positive one. Then reward yourself.
Medications can lose their effectiveness over time, so you might have to try new ones (prescription or non-prescription).
Address problems. Persisting symptoms can aggravate sleep disorders and may contribute to flare-ups. With a wrist problem - wear a splint. With a heel problem, wear a comfort sole. Active problem solving can help you maintain a personal sense of control over your well-being and help you feel and function at your best.
Many people with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia may be in a serene state mentally, but their body just doesn't get the message, and the muscles are as taut as guitar strings. Walking around all day with your muscles pulled up tight is an excellent way to cause pain. Work hard to become more aware of muscle tension.
Set a timer or wristwatch alarm to alert you every hour - or whatever is convenient for you - and when it goes off, run your checklist:
All parts of your body should be relaxed, though not limp, your head settled comfortably above your spinal column. Take a couple of slow, deep breaths and go back to what you were doing, being sure that your alarm will remind you to check for tenseness an hour later.
When the stress response is triggered by acute pain, endorphins flood the body, dampening the pain to allow response to the threat. This does not happen with chronic pain. You don't get "used to the pain." Chronic pain becomes harder to endure. After a time, fewer endorphins are produced to counter the same amount of pain.
Pain can harm your quality of life. When pain is the pervasive influence in your life, you may find it hard to think about anything else or to achieve much of anything. When you're working in severe pain, you may have trouble simply getting out of bed, let alone working. Pain also seeps into (or maybe floods into) other aspects of your life.
Chronic pain institutes an extended and destructive cascade of neuroendocrine dysregulation, fatigue, general discomfort, muscle aches, and decreased mental and physical function.
When you know your pain is eventually going to end and that you will recover, it is easier to tolerate. Hope helps you carry the burdens. If you have chronic pain, you may feel hopeless and helpless.
People with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia experience a lot more pain from any given stimulus than a healthy person would. But many patients with those illnesses have a high pain tolerance, even though they feel pain more readily. The amount of pain some endure is amazing.
Coping with pain is the most difficult challenge of living with Autoimmune Disease and/or Fibromyalgia. The pain is chronic, unpredictable, and often relentless. It presents continuing frustration and discouragement. Understandably, people with these illnesses who live with chronic pain often develop depression, as do those who have rheumatoid arthritis.
The next time your body is acting up, try distractions. When you successfully divert attention from your aching body, you'll feel less pain. The brain, amazing though it is, can only process so much input at once. So practice your powers of concentration and wee what a relief a true distraction can be.
Plan to have distractions available for those times when you must cope with extra pain or negativity. Buy the paints. Set up the workshop. Start a (small) garden. Be sure that your activity is one that will not present you with an insurmountable challenge. If you aren't able to do what you want, find a way to modify it to fit in with your current limitations.
Watching funny movies, taking a warm scented bath, reading a favorite book, or engaging in an enjoyable hobby may reduce the perception of pain. When in pain, ask yourself: What do I need to do for myself right now? Then take positive action by doing something pleasurable.
Keep a list of things you'd like to look up. Scour the internet for information.
Visit or phone friends or family and focus on someone else's life instead of your pain-wracked body.
Think of gift ideas for birthdays or holidays.
Enjoy the birds at your birdbath, a fish in a small fishbowl, flowers, etc.
Tune in - listen to your favorite music. Soothing, absorbing music can be anything from classical to jazz or from gospel to Broadway show tunes.
Challenge yourself - lose yourself in a game or project that requires your complete concentration. Try crafts, sewing, video games, board games, computer games, solitaire, etc.
Get a good belly laugh going. Set aside a time at regular intervals for the specific purpose of generating genuine laughter. Don't settle for a chuckle or two; focus on hearty, healthy howling.
Cultivate an eye and an ear for humor. Learn a tasteful, timely funny joke every week and tell it. Watch for and create humor in everyday situations, particularly in times of stress.
Keep a humor notebook. Make a list of those comedians, cartoons, audiotapes, and comedy movies that have the power to turn over your tickle box. Add your favorite comic strips, witty sayings, newspaper clippings, funny family stories, and jokes. Keep it on your nightstand for regular reference and reading.Laughter helps knock the edge off of pain. Keep your humor quotient high.
Can laughter be the best medicine? Medical research suggests that its beneficial effects on mind and body are not easily dismissed, particularly when it comes to restoring health and fighting pain.
To make life more worthwhile, spend more of your time having fun. This may seem like a formidable task when you have to deal with chronic pain. Start simply. Engaging in an activity that makes you happy and keeps you totally focused is an excellent distraction from chronic pain. What do you really enjoy doing? Maybe it's something you haven't done since you were a youngster, like reading comic books or arranging the furniture in a doll house.
Make a list of things you enjoy doing NOW. It is terribly difficult to think of amusing or interesting things to do when you are in the middle of crisis, such as when you are in flare. But if you have such a list to refer to at crisis times, it might be easier to distract yourself, when you most need to be distracted.
Take a few minutes every day to do something you enjoy. You will feel better if you make a special time for yourself EVERY DAY. Even a few minutes a day spent in pursuit of that which brings you pleasure can change your life.
Become a kid for a day. You might find out that you have forgotten how to play. Find something you enjoy and focus on it. Forget your responsibilities for a while. Give yourself permission to be silly. Make a sand castle. Make a snow angel. Play with finger paints. Use a coloring book. Explore your world.
Pain and stress have similar effects on the body. Muscles tighten, and breathing becomes fast and shallow. Heart rate and blood pressure rise. Relaxing can reverse these effects. It also endows a sense of control and well-being, making pain easier to manage.
Relaxation is more than just sitting down to read or watch TV. It involves learning to calm and control your body and mind. These skills don't come easily, especially if you are in pain. But practice helps. The best time to use relaxation skills is before your pain becomes too intense.
When reading, put your book or magazine on a pillow in front of you to reduce stress on your arms and to assist you in improving your posture.
Investigate bookstores, catalogs and music stores for forms of relaxation exercises. When you reach deep relaxation, your muscles tend to loosen and become less painful.
There is another technique for dealing with pain - especially the type of pain you get during flares. If the pain is so bad that it's forcing you to concentrate on it - and after you've satisfied yourself that it is caused by your Autoimmune Disease or Fibromyalgia and not a medical emergency - sit down or lie down and let the pain take over.
Contrary to common sense, when you stop fighting pain, it doesn't get worse - its intensity decreases and it becomes more manageable. It may take as much as an hour to obtain relief, but you can go about your business sooner if you give in to the pain than if you don't.