Jane Kerrison

I went to see my acupuncturist yesterday, and she told me that I was so stressed out that it was stressing her out! That makes three medical professionals in the last week that have told me I am too stressed right now. The thing is, I don’t actually have anything to be stressed about!

One of the most annoying things about fibromyalgia for me is the stress and anxiety that I feel periodically. What might cause a bit of stress for a healthy person, will often cause me an unmanageable amount of stress. When it gets to the point of anxiety, basically anything and everything stresses me out (Simple tasks like trying to choose between juice or milk can lead to tears at times like this. Seriously.)

Fibromyalgia symptoms are triggered by stress, yet the illness makes it difficult for my body to handle stress appropriately! So I get stressed, then my fibro flares, then I am even less able to deal with stress, which triggers my fibromyalgia symptoms even more, which makes me less able to deal with the stress, and so on and so forth. This cycle can be very frustrating.

But back to my current dilemma. It seems that maybe I’m still dealing with the fallout from a trying and difficult April, because there isn’t really another solid reason that I can see that would lead me to be so anxiety ridden. Regardless, I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that I may not get as much accomplished this summer as I had initially hoped. While this is annoying, I’m trying to focus on the fact that I need to put my health first, and if it takes me all summer to get back to my best, then I need to allow that time. Easier said than done.