If you feel like words are slipping out of your mouth or your brain is purposefully forgetting things, or if you have been suffering from intense chronic body aching, you might not be imagining these at all; it could be real, and it has a name - Fibromyalgia. Social media influencer Akshay Chandra Madhav recently took to Instagram to share his reality of living with chronic pain.
Madhav describes the condition as "a background music that never stops playing." For those who suffer, it truly feels like a constant, underlying noise in the back of your mind, forcing you to seek endless distractions just to not feel the pain, he adds.
What is fibromyalgia?
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Fibromyalgia is a long-term condition that causes chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and sleep problems. This is triggered by changes in the central nervous system, also called sensitisation, the part that processes pain. This also leads to memory and focus issues, often addressed as fibro fog. These conditions are influenced by genetic, environmental, and neurobiological factors. These symptoms often come and go, and the periods of their presence are known as flare-ups. Changes in general, stress or an injury can trigger the flare-ups.
Living with fibromyalgia: How to manage the condition
While medications, painkillers, and physical therapies help manage the condition, some prescriptions can have side effects, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic headaches, and nausea.
The National Library of Medicine suggests that regular physical activity, cognitive behavioural therapy, stress management, pharmacological interventions, lifestyle modifications, and the management of comorbid conditions are often chosen as the treatment measures. And these measures will help to manage the condition to an extent, since there is no known cure for this condition.
The chronic pain might make people feel like they are going to war inside their bodies. And this fight will look invisible to an outside spectator, and they might not completely believe the amount of pain that is being carried.
Research shows that the condition affects women and men equally. In the cases of women, the symptoms include those of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and primary dysmenorrhea. Fibromyalgia is classified as a rheumatic disorder, such as arthritis, lupus and so on.
Even though the pain is internal, it can affect life outside of it. It affects work, travel, relationships and most importantly, mental health. The background has to be adjusted a lot to cope with this pain. And it will drain the confidence, spontaneity and memory on top of the pain.
Stories of struggle don’t need to be heroic—they can look quiet, ordinary, and exhausting. A little empathy goes a long way in making life bearable for those living with chronic pain.
