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How I Healed Myself from Fibromyalgia

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Rebecca Hanson

 

Have you ever met a seven-headed dragon? Slaying it is nearly impossible, because as soon as you cut off one head two more grow in its place! I know this first-hand, because I fought with this dragon for 20 years until I found the chink in its armor and pierced its heart, once and for all.

 

Misdiagnosis Abounds

Like many sufferers of fibromyalgia, I was misdiagnosed for 15 years. Maybe it was because the condition has no specific or single cause, or because it has only recently (1990's) been recognized as a "legitimate" malady. As late as 1982, fibromyalgia was not even an entry in the doctors' standard clinical reference book, the Merck Manual. Over the years my doctors labeled my symptoms as: Chronic back pain (lower, mid and upper), frozen left shoulder (two and a half years), frozen right shoulder (one and a half years), plantar fasciitis, sleep disorder, restless leg syndrome—you get the picture. Finally, in 1997 I was given the label "fibromyalgia" and told that the only treatment was cortisone injections in every muscle where the pain was intolerable.

"Damn!" I thought, "That's a lot of needles!" Not willing to become a doctor's voodoo doll, I never went back to that doctor. Instead I turned to holistic approaches. I tried everything imaginable to "manage" my pain: excruciating deep muscle massage, strict diets, herbal remedies...I even tried a putrid brew concocted by a Chinese medicine doctor.

 

Admitting Defeat

After suffering for seven years under the futile belief that I could affect my own cure, I gave up. Admitting defeat, I found a new doctor and asked for help. His theory was that fibro is a disease linked to depression. So along with a non-steroid medication for pain, he prescribed an anti-depressant and a sleeping pill. These seemed to take the edge off the pain for a while.

I was "managing" my pain, pretty well until 2005 when I was crushed by trigeminal neuralgia. Excruciating pain exploded across the right side of my face—encompassing the jaw, cheek bone and temple and behind my ear. It was debilitating! I could do nothing but lie as still as possible with ice packs. Aspirin with codeine did not begin to touch the pain. I thought it might be a tooth, but the x-ray did not reveal anything for the dentist to deal with. I was sent to a neurologist who quite rudely told me, "You'd better hope it is a tooth because it's not worth cracking your head open to fix this." The trigeminal nerve does not originate in the spine, but at the base of the brain!

Gadz! I was a mess! So, my family doc prescribed an antiseizure drug in the hope it would block the perception of pain. As I was leaving his office, he said (rather off-the-cuff), "It might help with the fibromyalgia too."

A month later I was undergoing a root canal which eventually cleared up the facial neuralgia, but I stayed on the antiseizure medication because it did take a further "edge" off the fibromyalgia.

At the same time all this was happening, I was running two companies, TeleClass International and the Law of Attraction Training Center. I was happily turning every aspect of my life around and experiencing success and joy in everything I did—except THIS. I figured I just had to accept THIS as "the way it is."

I was beaten down and felt there was just nothing else I could do about it. Of course, my body was continuing to deteriorate under the unrelenting pain.

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Body/Mind Connection

My businesses started to suffer also and I decided to hire a business coach. On the intake form, under the heading of Health I wrote: "Ok, I wasn't going to address this, but if it shows up as dramatically as it has this week, then I won't ignore it. I was thrown flat on my back with a muscle spasm around my entire chest. The spasm was continuous for four days." My coach wrote back, "You are pushing very hard on yourself. Nothing wrong with that, except your body is telling you that something is wrong. Therefore, part of your journey is learning how to flow with ease and grace."

Hmmm, he had a point, but I really did not want to address this seemingly endless, impossible health challenge! Nevertheless, I surrendered to my coach and prayed for a solution.

A few days later I was reading and meditating—well, I was sort of reading and meditating—it was hard to stay focused and my eyes were just glancing at the letters in the book when these two sentences jumped off the page into my heart: "If your affairs are out of order, it is a reflection that your thinking is out of order. If your body is out of order, it is a reflection that your emotions are out of order." How to Use Your Twelve Gifts from God, by William Warch

I'm a very orderly person—my house is in order, my office is usually clean and orderly, my bills are all paid—I'm very responsible and my affairs are in order. But my body was definitely OUT OF ORDER and I had no clue what emotion was causing this, I had lived with it for 20 years. Whatever the cause, it was deeply buried.

 

Defining Event

At this point I decided to cooperate with my coach and an extremely painful memory surfaced! I had been so disappointed—more than disappointed—I was really angry at my body for letting me down when I had to surrender Matthew back into the care of Social Services! WOW!

In 1980 my husband and I had adopted a baby who had been abandoned at the time of birth because it "wasn't perfect." His natural parents would not bond, love or care for him because he was Down's syndrome. My husband was an obstetrician and when he learned the child was abandoned, he was quite shaken. Our fourth child, Sarah, has Down's syndrome and she has been such a joy to us that it was quite disturbing to imagine this little boy without a family. So we asked for and adopted Matthew at birth. What we did not realize at the time was that Matthew was also autistic. The combination of D.S., plus severe retardation and autism was a horrific package, and in seven years I was totally burned out.

That was when I felt such anger at my body. When I give my word or make a commitment I keep it. I'm a person of integrity. For my body to cave in like it did was simply NOT in my realm of possibility. But it had and I had carried this anger inside my body for 20 years!

 

Letting Go

NO WONDER I WAS IN PAIN! And my doctor was right! If fibromyalgia is caused by depression, and depression is "anger turned inward" as I learned in nurses' training, then indeed I was depressed!

I LET IT GO! Once I "saw" the root emotion—anger—I could understand why my body was screaming in pain. And I let it go. Just like that. In the moment I made my decision to let it go, it left. I knew it. A few days later I started slowly weaning myself off the medications. I'm not a martyr, so if I were feeling pain, I would be back on the meds, but I'm not. I'm free of pain, gaining strength, reprogramming my thinking and adding activities back into my life. This week I started two exercise classes at the local recreation center—a gentle fitness class and water fitness. THAT is a miracle!

Now, I would not presume to know what is at the root of every case of fibromyalgia. But I wouldn't be surprised if a long-held or blocked emotion would surface for most sufferers. My hope and prayer in sharing my story is that it will re-activate hope in your heart, and faith to believe in a miracle for yourself or someone you love.

 


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Rebecca Hanson, author of Law of Attraction for Business, founder of the Law of Attraction Training Center, and president of TeleClass International Services Inc., helps people use the Law of Attraction to transform their life and business. For more great tips like these, get your free copy of The Museletter at www.lawofattractiontrainingcenter.com/museletter.html

 

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Load Previous Comments
  • Guest - Jade

    Thank you for sharing your story. I have tried every single medical and natural approach to Fibro. It’s time to go inwards and look at my emotions. Thank you again xx

  • I am 63 year old who was diagnosed 8 months ago with Parkinson's. I had severe calf pain, muscle pain, slurred speech, frequent falls, loss of balance, difficulty in getting up from sitting position, I was having a problem accepting my diagnosis, even though I read every thing I could find to read. I was put on Sinemet 3 times daily but it didn’t seem to be helping. After 4 months of been diagnosed I was having difficulty writing. Getting in bed, turning over. There has been little if any progress in finding a cure or reliable treatment. So this year our primary physician suggested I started on Natural Herbal Gardens Parkinson’s Herbal formula which eased my anxiety a bit,We ordered their PD herbal treatment after reading alot of positive reviews, i am happy to report with the help of Natural Herbal Garden natural herbs I have been able to reverse my symptoms using herbs,8 weeks into treatment I improved dramatically. At the end of the full treatment course, the disease is totally under control. No case of Slurred Speech, loss of balance, or weakness. Visit Natural Herbal Gardens official website www. naturalherbalgardens .com This Herbal Protocol is Incredible!! My life is back.

  • Guest - Megan

    United States

    I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease nearly 4 years ago, at 51. I had a stooped posture, tremors, muscle stiffness, sleeplessness, slow movement. I was placed on Sinemet for 7 months and then Sifrol and Rotigotine was introduced which replaced the Sinemet but I had to stop due to side effects. Last year, I started on Parkinsons disease herbal treatment from Madida Herbal Clinic, this natural herbal treatment totally reversed my Parkinsons disease. The treatment worked incredibly for my Parkinsons disease, i have a total decline in symptoms including tremors, stiffness, slow movement and others.

    Comment last edited on about 5 years ago by Maff
  • Guest - Linda

    Maine, USA

    Here it is 2016 and doctors still don't want to recognize fibromyalgia. The fact of the matter is that the medical community only has hard core meds to throw at it. After a few appointments with lots of tests and only offered those meds and refusing to give me a diagnosis, I knew this was time and money wasted. This can be extremely frustrating but for me I have always taken advantage of alternative healthcare so that is where I headed. I also realized I carried so many burdens that I unconsciously added throughout my life that I needed to address. So my regimen is meditation, balance everyday (in other words doing something FUN), eating anti inflammatory foods, acupuncture. The hardest piece has been releasing thoughts and actions that don't make me feel good about myself and embracing the joys of where I am right at this moment. This I could not do on my own. My first choice was Louise Hays book "You Can Heal Your Life". This is not for the feint of heart tho. There's lots of choices--I choose what I'm drawn to. Am I healed? Well I still have pain. Am I healing? Yes! And in the process I actually like me, I'm kinder to myself and to others and I smile a lot. The constant gnawing anxiousness that has been me for a long time is gone. The body is still a mystery for even the medical profession. Who knows how long it took for this pain to appear? How long for the pain to heal and go. Was it environmentally caused? Was it emotional pains that got too heavy to bare? Or the totality of it all? Exploring and being open to all possibilities makes sense to me. And the risks to that for me at the moment I still have pain but I also have found me--pieces of me I hardly ever knew and I live every day accepting this wonderful gift of this life and everyone in it. I think I'll add that nice Buddhist chant--once I look it up to see what it means. Thank you.

  • Guest - kris

    depression, anger, fear/anxiety, etc. are all intimately related in a circular way with gene expression, metabolic chemical, neurotransmitter, hormone and immune/inflammatory cells and any resulting chemical byproducts of these processes; which people, depending on the genetic SNPs and predispositions to process/metabolize such things, will respond to differently. Some people will develop symptoms due to weaknesses in processing certain metabolic chemicals. Some people will have mental and physical symptoms due to any individual genetic pathway, some people will have none. This is all effected by food intake, toxic exposure, alocohol or other intoxicants, malnutrition and any nutrient deficientcy, environmental shocks and the chemical response to such, chronic stress from any number of reasons (which may or may not be conscious), and even autointoxication and/or malnutrition from compromised digestion/assimilation/absorption, lymphatic congestion/systemic tissue acidosis, etc. . Some people, once one of the contributing issues is modified, whether or not the person is aware of a change, the entire feedback loop of the array of body communications/chemicals/gene expressions can change, and effect a different presentation of symptoms, including the resolution of such. It is not illogical to believe that a chronic stress could result illicit biochemical changes within the body to produce any given pain symdrome, immune dysfunction, or sequestration of abonormal cellular byproduct such as tumor formation. It is durely possible that any malfunction of the intricate body systems could be wholly or partially effected by the physical chemical products of the mind. The chemical reactions that take place, and interact with genetic polymnorphisms, genetic strengths and weaknesses within these systems that run on a chemical communication system. It can only be logical that a chronic ongoing state of interference from stress could create any type of dysfunction, depending on the individuals internal environment and predetermined genetics. How could it not be possible that the physical processes of the body (neurotransmitter, hormonal, inflammatory, immune or biochemical imbalance and genetic upregulation/downregulation)resulting from the intangible origination in the mind (thoughts/internal stress) would not ultimately be able to cause or significantly contribute to physical disease processes?

  • Guest - guest

    While I do not wish the person who posted this anything but the best I must admit I was disappointed at the claimed cure. I do not want to come across as angry and frustrated as the one other negative commenter but I must say that I agree with them. Fibro is a real illness. I know because I have it. Whatever you had was undoubtedly awful, but it was not true fibro.

  • Middlesbrough, UK

    Hi All,

    I first want to reply to Julia (rather belated!) as I was introduced serendipitously to the same Buddhist mantra when I was at my lowest suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and all manner of related conditions covered here on this website. It's no overstatement to say that chanting this mantra for 30 minutes morning and evening literally turned my life around and gave me an enourmous sense of well-being and purpose. It's a feeling and fundamental change within oneself that can't be described in words, it must be felt for yourself by taking a leap of faith and giving it a go. Believe me, I was very reluctant at first being averse to anything with religious connotations. But, like I said the change was both unexpected and wonderful and I believe this meditation played a major role in my complete recovery from MCS - 11 years ago and counting.

    To Anonymous and Amy - While I can see where you are coming from Anon, we all know and accept that fibro is a very real, painful and debilitating illness, please at least consider what the author of this article and we commentators are saying and at least try the approaches described. You have nothing to lose and much to gain. Even medical science now tells us that meditation and similar 'psychological' therapies have a very tangible and measurable positive effect on the body and have the potential to aid in recovery from any illness, including fibromyalgia. Just take a look at the results of the study linked to from this [URL="http://www.ei-resource.org/forum/general-ei-discussion/3545-meditation-relaxation-turns-100s-of-genes-on-off"] forum post [/URL] which tells us that meditation and relaxation techniques have the power to actually control our DNA, turning genes on and off to benefit the health of the body.

    Wishing every fibro sufferer my best wishes and a happier, less painful future!

    Comment last edited on about 8 years ago by Maff
  • Guest - Amy

    I understand your frustration, Guest, believe me I do. But you say you are a happy person when your words show everyone here that you are clearly otherwise. You deride what worked for this one person who very clearly says that she can't begin to say what causes Fibro for everyone and you use very vulgar, very offensive, very sarcastic language, which is not the sign of a happy person.

  • Guest - Julia Ridsdale

    Dartmouth, Devon, UK

    I was diagnosed with PTSD. Fibromyalgia plus CFS plus chronic anxiety and depression 5 years plus ago... This isn't bullshit.. I got rid of my CFS chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo (A Buddhist chant) as I was so fed up with sleeping 13 hours a day that I decided that day I would chant until it was gone ( I do and did believe that most illness had an emotional cause.. Mind, body and Spirit being undeniably linked)... During the chanting I realised that unresolved emotional *stuff* from a previous relationship was the cause.. and from that day on I was free of the CFS.. the rest has taken more conquering.. I am encouraged by the post about the anger as I have always felt that depression is anger turned inwards.. and use that as an indicator if I am feeling "depressed. It is rare these days as have conquered my health now

  • Guest - Anonymous

    Either I have been misdiagnosed or this article is complete bullshit, I've been suffering in pain for over a decade since childhood and if my illness was linked to depression or unhappiness I wouldn't have it. I'm a really happy fun loving person and according to your theory I shouldn't be in any pain surprise I am, if just thinking your illness away with positivity was possible I would be suffering so much at the very least loving who I am being happy with my life and relationships, having no painful memories would at least take the edge off and it doesn't. I laugh i have fun and enjoy myself even with chronic pain because I don't let it control me but I still suffer in pain. There isn't release or a magic letting your problems go cure, it's one thing to be optimistic but giving people false hope for a miracle cure is wrong. Your disease was clearly mental I don't just let myself sit around for four days wallowing in my own self pity who the hell would?? My disease is purely physical and it's people like you having emotional problems that are linking it with your illness that are why doctors are misdiagnosing you just needed a good therapist I can't even shower without unbearable pain but I do it anyway because that's life shit gets thrown your way and you face it and deal with it, so as someone with a normal state of mind who is actually suffering from a physical illness, instead of their brain pushing their body into a corner, this is complete bullshit. This article is like saying you can pray your pain away, or wish it away or have a magic fairy god mother grant you peace of mind all of which is complete bullshit. Your problems were not medical they were mental, and that's why you were misdiagnosed all you needed was a therapist. While I've seen multiple therapists and I've been diagnosed as having environmental anxiety it is not linked to my pain, my pain is a nine out of ten even if I'm smiling and happy and calm, something is wrong people fybriomyalgia is a disease before its time it's not emotional it's physical this woman does not have fybriomyalgia just because they don't have a cure yet or a way to diagnose it does not mean it's not real, it does not mean it's a disease linked to your emotions I have real pattern of diseases endometriosis Being one of the big ones a host of gastro intentional and bladder problems including herniated discs and many more these are all real legit diagnoses which have actual causes but I believe they're all linked together, I believe this is a woman's disease, a terrible genetic or environmentally caused condition that is not made worse by mental causes, there is something more here that all these misdiagnoses are ledgit diagnoseS connecting the dots adding up to one big illness a combination of all the other symptoms connecting creating a super disease or illness maybe it's a genetic mutation, maybe it occurs at birth and takes 15 or 20 years to completely manifest resulting in several diagnoses over time. I live a happy life in pain I deal with my anger not unlike other people with art and writing I enjoy every pain filled moment because I have learned to cope but in 20 or 30 years they will know more they will develop a treatment based on the facts and when they do, they will tell you it's not mental, yes your depressed because your in pain, your depressed because you can't move or walk like you used to or hold a paint brush like you used to, I was depressed many years ago as a child because of my age I quickly adapted and moved forward, but make no mistake I was depressed because of my immobility, and my pain Through the years has gotten consistently worse as my attitude and life and happiness has improved greatly. If your article is true then perhaps my improved attitude and happiness is making my pain worse though I serious doubt it. Mark my words in a couple decades as genetic and environmental studies improve they will find a cause and a cure that comes in pill form instead of this wish yourself better crap and guess what false hope is the only thing you have when you play with that strategy. As a professional Psychic I believe in many things including hope, but I do not believe your emotions dictate your pain, you do not dictate your pain it has a mind of its own, but you also don't let it dictate you. People are always going to be skeptical and they should be, but holistic medicines and faith are not proven ways to treat pain. I live my life, I love my life i push through the pain and everyday i fight, that fight is mental that drive to push through and keep going and have faith that someday there will be a legitimate cure, that is real, that is a way to cope and handle the pain even when your wide awake at 3 am screaming, your mind is your biggest asset, not a cause for weakness or more pain. Your mental perspective is always changing but the pain remains if you have a legitimate pain condition don't let this article fool you.

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