How to Treat Fibromyalgia with Mindfulness

Staying active, using mindfulness techniques, exploring biofeedback, and practicing relaxation may help you cope with the debilitating pain of fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia causes severe pain throughout your body. But scientists do not know why.

About 4 million Americans have fibromyalgia, but the numbers may be much higher. Women are twice as likely to develop the condition, but it also affects men and children. You are usually diagnosed during middle age.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 5 Surprising Sources of Pain

Risk factors of fibromyalgia

• Stressful or traumatic events, such as car accidents
• Repetitive stress injuries
• Viruses
• Obesity
• Family history of fibromyalgia

Typical symptoms include muscle aches anywhere, or all over, your body. The pain usually develops gradually but can also seem to occur suddenly. Often, it comes and goes in a pattern unique to the individual patient.   

If you have fibromyalgia, you know the pain is often maddening. Relief may seem out of reach. It may strike up to 13 percent of people who also suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and about 15 percent of people with type 2 diabetes.

Some scientists consider fibromyalgia a brain malfunction that amplifies normal nerve responses. Fibromyalgia also seems to be related to chronic inflammation, an immune system reaction linked to many illnesses. Emotional responses to stress play a role, as they do in many illnesses.

While the causes of your pain are not “all in your head,” you can make lifestyle changes to cope with this mysterious illness.   

Stay active

If you’re always exhausted, you may have a hard time getting yourself to work out. You may be afraid exercise will aggravate your symptoms. Yet, gentle exercise could reduce your pain and make you healthier and happier.

Start slowly, perhaps with a half hour of brisk walking, dancing, or water aerobics, three times a week. Strength-training is also important. Consider kettle balls or elastic exercise bands. Have a personal trainer teach you how to use them.

Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and dance classes will also get you moving.

Mindfulness

Everyone can benefit from becoming more self-aware and aware of the world around them rather than moving through their day on autopilot.

Mindfulness training can help you recognize negative thoughts and feelings and turn them into acceptance, patience, and compassion.

You might practice eating breakfast very slowly, without any distractions, noticing how your food tastes. You might teach yourself to slow down your reactions to other people.

Meditation and yoga can boost your ability to be mindful throughout your day. Research suggests mindfulness programs offer fibromyalgia patients mild benefits in managing depression, anxiety, and sleep quality.

You may see programs labeled mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or mindful self-compassion. The programs typically last eight weeks and teach techniques you continue to practice on your own.

Brain scan research shows that fibromyalgia patients may have less brain activity associated with anxiety after undergoing a training program, and they had better results than a control group.

Biofeedback

In this practice, you become aware of your body’s reactions. You place electrodes on your body to measure muscle tension or brain activity, monitoring the measurements on a screen. You’ll learn to relax your muscles or think particular thoughts.

A study with 40 fibromyalgia patients in an eight-week program found that biofeedback significantly lowered the severity of their pain and helped them fall asleep faster and sustain their attention, compared to patients who received only emotional support.

Relaxation

Many relaxation techniques don’t require specialized equipment. You might concentrate on certain groups of muscles, tensing and then relaxing them. You’ll move on to another group of muscles.

In autogenic training, you picture parts of your body and focus on how they feel, then consciously relax them. After prolonged practice, you could even influence your heartbeat.

Guided self-hypnosis and visualization techniques can help as well.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome May Start in Your Immune System