CBT Strategies To Target Fibromyalgia Symptoms
According to licensed clinical social worker Beth Kane, an expert with people with chronic illness, who also doubles up as Point Pleasant’s New Jersey life coach, the following symptoms of fibromyalgia can be managed through CBT Therapies:
Pain
CBT can be effective in tackling catastrophized pain. It does so by reframing thoughts around pain. A patient can be trained to go from the worst thoughts and led progressively to less emotive and consuming thoughts. For instance, CBT can help a patient get from “this pain is so bad I cannot live like this” to “the pain is quite intense but I can still live and do x-y-z.” As such, ACT does help the patient accept the reality of the moment, which serves to reduce anxiety and allows the patient to lessen the focus on their pain.
Fatigue
CBT tackle the symptom of fatigue in several ways. The most important of which are journaling and using worksheets. Many patients suffer from stress due to having disorganized lives that lead to fatigue. CBT therapists can help clients identify high energy, recurring and high priority tasks and plan a schedule to effectively manage their time and energy expenditure. In addition, skills of mindfulness, acceptance, and relaxation help patients identify things that they can let go of to save energy for better use. Consequently, patients experience less stress and fatigue.
I have tried lots of meds including duloxetine this drug at first was great but after a couple of weeks I started to feel really poorly my gp did say she was worried about two much seratonium and gave me advice if I felt unwell go straight to the hospital I was taking tramadol quatiapine and hormone replacement therapy trazodone and lyrica (pregabalin) which I was coming off very slowly I decided to try duloxetine first at a lower dose then up to the higher dose which seemed to really help I felt great however that short lived and eventually started to feel sick. Blinding headache constipation dry mouth insomnia aggitation my appitite was poor I could manage a couple of spoonfuls that was it and once again weight gain. I went back to the doctors who had read my notes and after I told her how I felt and said I wanted to come off the duloxetine but keep the trazodone so she reduced the duloxetine to 30mgs but I still felt poorly after reducing I went back a week later still feeling my this point very agitated aggressive tearful and thinking what’s the point of all this suffering the next doctor then stopped the duloxetine and put my dose of pregablin up to 100mgs which now means u have to start reducing that again. Iam booked in with my own doctor this week and hopefully we can look at other alternatives however I will say I do not in any way say my doctor is to blame she is a very good gp. The other GPS should have looked at my records and saw what was written about the seratonium levels.I hope if you are reading this don’t be to eager to change any medication even though the article may say the drug is really good read the risks and other comments carefully before bring to eager and continue to read the articles on this website good luck everyone
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 7 months ago. I can’t get any relief from the pain no matter what I do. So I started smoking weed and it helps some with the pain and I can go to sleep but wake up so stiff and sore it’s hard to get out of bed. I try to exercise and walk some everyday but afterwards I can barely sit up. People just don’t know what it’s like unless you have it.