Healthy Living

Talk Therapy Is Essential for Fibromyalgia Patients

Talk Therapy Is Essential for Fibromyalgia Patients

Approximately 30 percent of those with fibromyalgia have depression, mood disturbances, and/or anxiety. When their mental state surrenders to their physical state, physical pain gets stronger. It is essential to seek a counselor, psychiatrist, or psychologist to help improve some of fibromyalgia's most painful symptoms. 

Patients need a full tool chest of help when they have fibromyalgia. Many of those who suffer from fibromyalgia have mood disorders that can be due to the constant pain and fatigue that accompanies this disorder.

It seems to be a circle: you are in pain, tired, and this affects your moods. Your mental state begins to take over, and you are anxious, depressed and stressed. It is hard to do anything or be happy. Counseling may just be the key that breaks the cycle of fibromyalgia's depression and mood swings.

Depression

When you have depression, you are sad. But not just momentarily sad, this is extreme and chronic sadness. However, there are other signs of depression that may be a cause of your fibromyalgia:

  • Pain: Depression shares some of the same biological pathways and neurotransmitters as chronic pain. Up to 75 percent of people who suffer from chronic pain also suffer from depression. When you are in pain, you tune into your body and feel pain and discomfort deeper.
  • Anger: If the smallest pain or mishap makes you mad, it's possible that you are depressed. People with chronic pain and depression feel irritable, angry, and frustrated.
  • Brain fog: Most of us make about 70 conscious decisions every day, and most of them deal with your everyday routines. When you are depressed, your brain seems to fall into a “fog.” Little things become weighty decisions, or you can’t remember what you need to do.
  • Forget hygiene: Depression often leads to not caring what you look like. Pain can cause your mental state to be so overwhelmingly uninterested that all you think about is how much pain you have.

Anxiety

Fibromyalgia brings on feelings of anxiety, or is it the anxiety cause fibromyalgia? Anxiety is not depression. It is a consuming feeling of panic, excessive worry, or fear. You feel like your heart is pounding so much that you are about to have a heart attack. Signs of anxiety or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) include:

  • Excessive worry: If you worry most days of the week and for months or more, have overwhelming fatigue, and you are dysfunctional, you are exhibiting signs of GAD.
  • Sleeping: Chronic trouble falling or staying asleep is associated with mental and physical conditions. You may be worried about everything or nothing in particular. GAD could be the answer.
  • Phobias: Anxiety with medical conditions is reasonable, but abnormally thinking about your health all the time and worrying that you will fall, act weird, or say something unusual is a sign of an anxiety disorder.
  • Muscle Tension: Do you consistently clench your jaw, ball your fists, or flex your muscles? This symptom is often a sign of an anxiety disorder.
  • Chronic indigestion: Anxiety might start with pain and in the mind, but it manifests in the self through physical symptoms like digestive problems. Persistent indications are irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and or diarrhea.

Wondering how depression and anxiety relate to fibromyalgia? The symptoms are similar in all three situations. Are anxiety and depression causing fibromyalgia or are these symptoms a result of your fibromyalgia? It is the classic puzzle, which came first, the chicken or the egg, argument.

If you have fibromyalgia and experience extreme depression and anxiety, a mental health professional can help you overcome your fears and problems. Trained and educated mental professionals know what to do in situations like yours.

Types of Mental Health Professionals

Discuss your fibromyalgia with your doctors and let them recognize what kind of mental health professional will be best for your case:

  • A licensed professional counselor or LPC will provide mental health and substance abuse care. They are trained to work with families, individuals and groups in treating behavioral, mental and emotional problems and disorders. An LPC must have the proper education, supervised clinical experience and pass a state licensing exam. They have a master’s degree in counseling and can treat mental and emotional disorders.
  • Psychologists are non-physician mental health professionals who have a doctorate. They address emotional problems using different therapies. They need to complete a graduate program in psychology that qualifies them to evaluate, diagnose, treat and study mental processes. Psychologists do not prescribe medications, but they do have extensive training in psychological scoring, interpretation, and diagnostics.
  • Psychiatrists are medical doctors who prescribe medications to help you with depression and anxiety. They diagnosis, study and treat mental problems. A psychiatrist evaluates patients to determine if their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a mental ailment or a combination of both.

Whatever type of mental health professional you choose to help you through your fibromyalgia, rest assured that they will find a way to deal with this debilitating condition.

Coping with fibromyalgia

Stress may be a factor in triggering fibromyalgia symptoms. When fibromyalgia flares, most sufferers feel anxious, nervous, and panicked. Mental health experts have found that when fibromyalgia patients reduce the stress, they have a reduction in depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Sleep becomes more relaxing and healing. Life becomes pleasant again.

  • Remove yourself from stressful situations. When you imagine you are in a life or death/fight or flight situation your stress levels rise, and fibromyalgia symptoms take over. See life as something you can handle rather than something overpowering. Emotionally walk away from tense situations.
  • Modify your working conditions. Discuss your responsibilities with your supervisor. Ask if you can work from home a couple of days a week or come in later and leave earlier. Perhaps you could take a nap at lunch to build up your energy.
  • Learn to say “no.” Setting personal limits is a great way to avoid stress. Saying no will prevent the demands you cannot handle. Think through a request before you answer. Be honest and weigh your alternatives.
  • Improve your communication skills. Learn to be open and honest when talking about your fibromyalgia. Let your family, spouse, friends, and co-workers know what is going on and how you feel at a particular time. Other's knowing your pain reduces stress and stress reduction reduces mental discomfort.

The physical pain of fibromyalgia is incapacitating. When you are in pain, your mental and emotional state suffers, and your quality of life is at a low point. Once you recognize your pain isn’t just physical, visiting with a mental health professional may be your answer. Not only will they help you work through your issues, but they give you tips and techniques to help you stop thinking about your pain. Often just talking about what you are going through is enough to support. Your goal is to feel better and regain your life.