May 17th, 2009
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn”,
Gloria Steinem
Women are often prone to say that we are experts on multi-tasking whereas men are more linear and less circular in their thinking. This of course suggests then, if this is accurate, that it is more difficult for women to ‘be in the moment’ as it is for men who are presumed to be more focussed on the main task at hand. I wonder therefore if this could contribute to the higher incidence of fibromyalgia in women than in men? The more tasks we are responsible for, the less we are focussed on one specific moment in time. Rather we are intent on handling not only the many present responsibilities, but that of other tasks in the future and the perceived needs of others.
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May 9th, 2009
“Self development is a higher duty than self sacrifice”, Elizabeth Stanton
As I read more and more about brain mapping and how to change the pain mappings in my brain I am reminded about how intensely I wrote in my book regarding the highly sensitive person (HSP, according to Elaine Aron). This is the ‘empath’, the person who senses what other people are feeling and takes on the emotions of others as though they were her/his own( I don’t mean this in the usual sense of the ‘psychic’ person, or in any mystical way). I still stand by that description of the person with fibromyalgia. We are like a toxic sponge! Now, I believe that this type of person (mainly, but, of course not solely, women) has the personality characteristics of the self sacrificing, doing good for others (what Dr. James Rochelle calls ‘goodism’) and ‘giving yourself away’ (a term Nick Matheson coined). When I think of Florence Nightingale on this May day, her birthday month, suffering from fibromyalgia, I think of her as a primary example of self sacrificing.
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May 2nd, 2009
I have just been nominated as a Women’s Health Hero from the Our Body Ourselves collective by a former student. I am so honored by this nomination. The series of books written by this collective is superb. I wrote (with two colleagues) a chapter for their book on menopause which is a topic near and dear to my heart as fibromyalgia seems to speed up at mid-life. I also have a chapter in my own book on fibromyalgia regarding menopause. If you are interested in nominating me (or some of the other wonderful women) please visit their site as soon as possible www.ourbodiesourselves.org/heroes.asp Nominations cease May 8th/09! Just reading about those lovely women is inspiring.
May 11,2009
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April 12th, 2009
” Trust one who has gone through it”, Virgil
Writing those words, in fact, even thinking about the title makes me feel uncomfortable! Who wants to be labeled as one whose pain is thought to be “JUST in your head” implying it is not real? But, before we go off into a tailspin about that specific demeaning-sounding word, I should begin by saying what I now believe psychosomatic to mean. It certainly does not suggest that those of us with fibromyalgia are hysterics who malinger just to get attention. But, maybe, just maybe, our pain is caused by emotions that are unconsciously deep seated, trapped in past trauma and ARE in our head (brain). Such emotions as anger, sadness, anxiety, fear, rage and others can be kept in a closed segment of our minds without taking them out to examine and work with consciously. After all, pain perceptions come from our body’s nociceptors, funneled up to the brain. Psychosomatic does not mean the pain is not real, but that pain comes from the brain in the stored memories.
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March 25th, 2009
“Memory, the warder of the brain”, William Shakespeare
This is it!!! In my view this is the most significent in-sight I have had about the pain of fibromyalgia. It has been a long and interesting journey beginning with my book in which I laid the foundation about why women are more prone to developing FMS and my conclusion that it is actually caused by an over-aroused nervous system. However, while this was the first step, and the primary one, more has been revealed to me and I am very excited over the unlimited hope there could be for us all. I still don’t have all the answers and it may be that I am presnting information that is not quite accurate, but it has been a steep learning curve and requires much un-learning, which is said to be more difficult than learning. It all began with my physiotherapist, Nick Matheson who brought me to a path which I had never travelled down before, that is, to explore the relationship of pain and the brain, rather than looking simply at fibromyalgia as the result of a hyper-aroused nervous sytem. The journey down this path is not yet complete so I welcome comments from others who are more learned in this domain than I am.
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February 14th, 2009
” I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living”, Harvey Milk
The question I ask in the title is one that has intrigued me for several decades. Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to this vexing issue. But, I would like to speculate about this for a wee bit as it is an unexplored area of research in the fibromyalgia domain.
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January 31st, 2009
” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot”, Albert Einstein
Having worked, taught and been involved in research for many years in a university, I am accoustomed to conferences and seminars where reviewing, applauding or critiquing the work of others is usual. Building upon good science and discarding that which seems wrong headed is part of the research process. It is how new knowledge is created. It is the true meaning of what constitutes good science. In short, open debate is encouraged.
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December 30th, 2008
“Why do we pay for psychotherapy when massages cost half as much?” Jason Love
Aloha! Hauoli Makahiki! Happy New Year!
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December 13th, 2008
” The last day of the old year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and command our admiration but never our love” , Lucy Maud Montgomery
I am now on the west coast of Canada in beautiful British Columbia. Leaving Nova Scotia in the cold, I had hoped that Vancouver would be much warmer for my angry muscles. They just don’t like the bitterness of east coast winters. Alas! It is freezing cold here and it snowed, plus there is ice, making walking treacherous. Vancouver is close to the American city of Seattle so all you Canadian and American west coasters are suffering and I am in it with you too! Climate change and all the crazy weather patterns make for unpredictable weather, wherever we are. Added to this stress? The holidays, phew! Too much for those of us with fibromyalgia. Our emotional sensitivities are on high alert. The world has turned topsy turvy these last several years and it is difficult to be hopeful about the future. But, negative thoughts are not what we need as we approach ‘09!
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December 1st, 2008
” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen
While I have read about and practiced (somewhat… and not diligently), mindfulness meditation, I have not often successfully been able to ‘let go’ of the pain messages from my brain, which seems to be from where anxiety and stress originates. Certianly there has been good success with mindfulness meditation for fibromyalgia (See the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn). Meditation is a life long undertaking and the practice itself is intended to be daily. Now I have been told of another way to facilitate bringing more peace into our lives and ‘letting go’. It is called Tonglin Practice. Although I am not a Buddhist, I do believe that there is much to be learned from Tonglin. It too appears to be another way to work with the breath and training the brain.
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November 1st, 2008
“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people”, Thich Nhat Hanh
Since I am convinced that fibromyalgia is the result of a hyper-aroused nervous system, I wish I knew for certain if it is caused by early inadequate parenting by our parents and/or difficult childhood experiences in highly sensitive persons, or if we are born with highly sensitive nervous systems. I have my hunches, built upon numerous interviews and talks with many people (mostly women) over many years. In particular, my view is built upon my own experiences. Therefore, I will go out on a limb and suggest that we are not born with an easily aroused nervous system, but rather it slowly develops over many years as a result of our early socialization . Yet, even saying such a thing brings up the issue of children with fibromyalgia. Maybe, just maybe, they were born with the pre-disposition to this condition. What a dilemma! More questions than answers once again. Maybe it can be both nature and nurture. Parent blaming has become something of a modern day occupation. That is certainly not my intent. Who among us had perfect parents or are ourselves perfect parents?
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October 10th, 2008
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it” , Lena Horne
HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK-END!
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September 7th, 2008
“Once it is understood that sufferings cannot be compared, then it is possible to speak of different sufferings in the same story, because there is no comparison”, Arthur W. Frank
Here it is… one awful day, living with the winds and rains of Hurricane Hanna and my brain tells my body something unusual is happening. The neurotransmitters are in overdrive. The itching has returned; it is everywhere on my body and nothing relieves it…not the Epsom Salts baths nor the Aveeno Anti-Itch lotion. I can’t get comfortable and my nerve endings are on fire. Only by constant massaging of my body parts do I get some degree of relief. When the hurricane passes us by I know the itching will subside until the next stressful event or a dramatic weather change.
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August 15th, 2008
” So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always fla
re up again within us”, Gaston Bachelard
A flare-up, a word for an acute attack of fibromyalgia, can be very alarming if it seems to come out of the air without warning. Even after years of living with fibromyalgia I can become overwhelmed with anxiety about an episode that I can’t account for. Sometimes the flare-up is in a localized area of my body, for example, this year it is in my hip, while last year it was in my foot. Other times it is everywhere; my nervous system is on fire and pain and fatigue runs rampant throughout. When it happens I go through all the scenerios of the past few days and wonder what precipitated this new, intense attack. Elaine Scarry writes that “Physical pain has no voice, but when at last finds a voice, it begins to tell a story…” (p.3). This is my story:
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July 25th, 2008
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion”, Simone deBeauvoir
This week Estelle Getty died, one of the stars of The Golden Girls, a rather schmaltzy sitcom about friendships, the theme song words “thank you for being my friend” ringing clear in the hearts of some of us old enough to remember, even if we did not particularly enjoy the shows. However, it got me to thinking about the meaning of friendships among those of us with fibromyalgia, hence these following thoughts on the topic, in particular, friendships among women. While I might seem to generalize to all women and all men this is not my intent. I show here the results of years of observations, research and experience.
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July 11th, 2008
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”, Mark Twain
Given that modern medicine has been unable to find either a cause or cure for fibromyalgia it is little wonder that many have turned to an alternate way of viewing and discussing the body in order to deal with the many daily issues facing them. ‘Energy medicine’ is significant in that it has changed the discourse about the body and is the approach that is popular with those who are not mainstream health care practitioners, although, in fact, even some conventional practitioners embrace the paradigm, which continues to amaze me. Generally based upon therapies that evolved from Eastern philosophies, there is a great deal of confusion for someone sifting through the various ways in which energy medicine is presented. In most cases this belief system involves a ‘healer’, body/mind techniques and stresses self healing. It is believed by the advocates that it is a cure for many ailments, among them fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and environmental illness.
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June 23rd, 2008
“Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it”, George Carlin
To-day one of my favourite comedians died. I shall miss his humour and while I obviously agree with Carlin’s view that both men and women are from earth, I cannot be quite so cavalier about dealing with many known differences. Sensitivity and empathy, for example, are human emotions that are often expressed very differently among men and women and both of these affect or may even be responsible for fibromyalgia.
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June 20th, 2008
“Bridge is essentially a social game, but unfortunately it attracts a substantial number of antisocial people”, Alan Truscott
Those of us with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue need fun, lightness, play time, enjoyable games that bring us good cheer and laughter. There are no better ways to relax those painful muscles and let us forget for awhile how easily it is for us to become overwhelmed with fatigue! We are advised to find ways to relax, think positive thoughts, spend time with nice, friendly people and let our minds focus on happy places and events that add joy to our lives. Of course it is also important to keep our brains active and alert even when we experience ‘brain fog’.
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June 12th, 2008
” Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse” , Lily Tomlin
I am weary. Try as much as I can, I cannot find many fibromyalgia researchers who are willing to stop this endless search for a medical cause of fibromyalgia! So many seem keen on trying to force the Cinderella slipper on the wrong foot! WHY IS THIS? It can’t be for research grants to enhance careers, but can it be that there is a naive hope of finding a ‘cure’. But, wait, I don’t mean to imply that all the researchers are cold hearted and don’t want to find a ‘cure’! Of course they do, who wouldn’t? But how about the ’cause’ question? Back and forth we go between cause and cure.
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June 4th, 2008
“Question everything”, Maria Mitchell
Frustrated that there is not much hope for relief from the usual medical system and its approach to fibromyalgia, many turn for help to practitioners who provide either complementary or alternative medicine (C/AM). The differences between the latter two is an artifical separation since they both entail using concoctions, therapies, herbs, or homeopathic remedies that are one and the same. The more interesting issue is how they differ from the traditional scientific ‘western’ medical approach, or what has been known as ’allopathic’ medicine, or now commonly referred to as ‘evidence based medicine’ (EBM) of health care. However, within this discussion I do not refer to EBM as within the domain of CAM as many ‘alternate’ practitioners are prone to do.
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