I want to add Fibromyalgia to the list of chronic illness. It is a debilitating chronic illness that further complicates agoraphobia and anxiety disorders. In fact, it makes them a lot worse!

It's tough to work on the agoraphobia when you're not feeling well, can't walk, have muscle weakness, fatigue and aren't sleeping well.

I really struggle with the fibro and the agoraphobia. Is there anyone else out there who does as well?

I have fibro as well. The fibro fog & pain are my two main problems with this condition. The fibro fog makes it almost impossible to comprehend the lessons, or at least I feel that way. And the pain just makes me wanna lie in bed all day. I work so that doesn't happen during the week, but on the weekend that's usually what I wind up doing. I don't like fibro. I look healthy but I ache all over and I am so tired all the time...Not to mention the awful IBS that can strike at any time with hardly any warning...

HI Aggie!
I am 33 and have been disabled four years from Fibromyalgia, Lupus, RA, liver disease, heart disease, as well as the ailments that go with FMS..migraines, IBS, I also have patella femoral syndrome in both knees. I can no longer sit for an extended period of time with bent knees.

I have always had issues with anxiety well before I got sick with Fibromyalgia. I did spend 2 years in bed when I could not feel the right side of my body, nor could I sit up due to the pain in my back. Chronic illness is a very isolating disease. We don't get out alot, we have to completely change our lives, and spend a lot of time resting. However, I have found ways that this has helped to make me a better person. I wrote something called "I'm still me only better" recently and sent to all my loved ones.

I beleive my agoraphobia started when I spent that two years in bed. However, I don't want to spend my entire life being petrified to walk the five steps to my mailbox. I am still relatively young, and with medications can live a normal life albeit a reduced quality of life. It's very hard to push ourselves when we feel physically not well, however, I've worked really hard to not let my illness rule my life. I pace myself and just do what I can when I can. For agoraphobia, we can simply go for short rides with our loved ones, or friends to get out. This past week, all I had to do was get to the car, lay down in the back seat, and I went and had a picnic on Lake Michigan and came home soonafter. I try to make small attempts to get out of the house. Like the small steps we take with our Fibromyalgia and other disease, we can take small steps with agoraphobia too! Even if its sitting out in the shade for an hour..anything to get outside and feel comfortable!!

I couldn't agree more. I think we need to be kind to ourselves, not identify ourselves as the illness but instead it's just something we have to deal with. Getting out - even if it is just to sit out on the porch for 5 minutes, or a leisurely walk to and from the mailbox - is good at times.

I also want to comment on the fibro fog. That really is a difficult thing as well. I get it and I'm too fogged in to even tell my husband I have it. It's so darn frustrating! I really do not like going out on those days at all.

And Yes chronic illness is very isolating. I've often wanted to read some kind of book or magazine dealing with isolation in detail and how to make a life for yourself in spite of it. I think there are many many people out there with chronic illness living lives of desperation. I have been one of them at many times in my life. Wouldn't it be great if there were an "Anxiety Channel" or something like that to help us with the isolation and the challenge of beating anxiety disorders? I love that idea.

Be a great day!

Hello,
Just thought I would stop by and give you all hope. I don't have fibromyalgia myself but I have someone very close and dear to me who was diagnosed with it years ago. With skills(kinda like the ones in this program), she has begun to feel much better. She has even said in most people's minds she would be cured but she uses the word 'manages' her body. For herself, she found her diet was the first major change that HAD to happen. I think her story is really reassuring for anyone out there. I just thought I would tell you all, even though I don't know personally what it all would feel like. I wish you all the best...

I have hope however I have learned that this disease there is no cure, and really we havent even found a way to "manage" my condition and I go to one of the top ten hospitals in the United States..This program did NOT help my fibromyalgia although it may help my anxiety..Anxiety isn't really related to a chronic disease and the changes that go on in your body. I did neurofeedback for 2 years which was recommended highly over CBT training for pain management and it didn't do a bit of good. Also, we all don't have the same level of the disease. I have a neighbor that has it and she only has back pain and travels all over the country. I can't get out of bed and dress myself most days and I'm only 33. If we need hope in any areas its that the doctors find the medications to fix the chemicals and to lower our substance P that is in our brains and spinal cords..

Aggie I agree with you there should be more specialists that just deal with chronic illness and the emotional upheaval that goes with it. Not many even have the slightest clue what we go through on a daily basis..I know my mom has said time and again she can't understand it..she can only empathize for me. I know they recommend having some hobbies that we are able to do with our pain, only that doesn't completely take our isolation away!!

I've had a really bad flare up this week to where one side of my body was numb again..i've fallen the past few weeks, and its just been unbearable. Tonight though I made myself get in the car and go to the pharmacy for my own meds..just to show this ugly monster FMS and this other ugly monster agoraphobia that it wasn't going to get ME down!! I've got some really good books on chronic illness..I will list them in my next post..one of them describes the stages of changes we go through emotionally when we have to become a new person due to illness

Boy do I sympathize! I have had fibro for over 3 years now. I am 25 and feel 90! It is so frustrating some days...today is one of those! It's rainy here in the Midwest and my body is telling me so. I'm tired, achy and my head has hurt for 3 days. I am so excited to see this topic and look forward to future conversations!

Oh don't you enjoy being a human weather vane?? lol. I know... I don't either! I was hurting a lot yesterday and today I wake up to rain. I shoulda known!

Hugs, A

HopeandFaith...I'm glad you were able to get out and get your prescriptions today. I will be doing same tomorrow. Sometimes that is the event of the day. Also, regarding the hobbies suggestion - you hit the nail on the head - it doesn't eliminate the isolation! I can crochet until I've made everyone I know a scarf - but it doesn't get me interacting with anyone.

Tonight I watched Larry King and Linda Dano referred everyone to www.depressionhurts.com - I would suggest everyone check it out as fibro and depression seem to go hand in hand.

Big hugs to everyone!

I would like to offer people some hope. I was dx'd with fibro when most docs didn't believe in it, about 15 years ago. I went to one of the top docs in the country for it, Dr. Don Goldenberg in MA who has written several books on the topic and on chronic illness. He recommends a "mind-body" approach and I took several of his classes as well as those offered by the University Medical Center in Worcester MA run by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn (who also has some great materials).

Altho I still have fibro, I would like to say mine is well managed. I know if I do certain things like go on a hike I will "pay" with pain, but there are some days when I am prepared to pay the price. There ARE some studies that say fibro can sort of "go away" after many years, but I do think it's more that we who have it have learned to manage it better.

I had agoraphobia in my early 20's...I'm not sure how I got over it, I just did little things each day and then I was able to get out again.

It CAN get better. Hang in there, listen to your body and rest when it tells you to, learn good breathing and relaxation techniques. Swimming in a heated pool is a fabulous treat and I recommend that if you can do it.

Be as well as you can be!

I've done all the alternative things and every time I go back there is a new diagnosis or it gets worse. They are now starting to think it can be a progressive illness. I have several friends that have it and cannot dry their hair or get dressed on their own and we are only in our 30's and its been that way since we got sick in our late 20's. I have several older friends and one has had to give up her part time avon business she had going on. I try to look at it realistically and go by what my own doctors say. I don't want to hold out for false expectations and hope. Even the doctor I just saw at U of Michigan which is one of the top ten hosptials in the country said it can get worse, and there is nothing to do but throw meds at us in trial and error to see what does and does not work. I have 18/18 trigger points and can walk less than one city block. Even doing that I need constant rest and naps.

I think the main thing we are looking at here is to not feel so isolated and how to deal with those issues. Because when you are agoraphobic and have many physical illnesses its quite hard to get out and about and meet people. And in support groups i have learned many with chronic illness lose alot of the relationships with people they once had. There is a great group on yahoo called CF alliance that is for CFIDS and FMS..ITs really enlightening!

Hopeandfaith and willowfen...we were talking in the last few days. I have just been diagnosed with FM. Tried to make myself keep going a hundred miles an hour "to beat" whatever was wrong with me. Didn't know I was causing myself more pain. Now, I'm doing well, because MOST of the time I pace myself well.

i was rx with fm about 9 yrs ago..i was assaulted, by an ex bf he pushed me down the ground and i landed on cement. since then my life has ben turned upside down..i was 37 then.., an up and coming fitness competitor, and a fitness trainer! as the years go by i get worse and more depressed..i usd to run 5 miles a day and now i cant get out of bed thus i have gained 30 lbs..i am now at my wits end..thats y im here..i dont no what to do ..i cant manage it anymore..needles to say i am divorced and single..i meet guys that cant handle what i have.what does this mean, that i have to be alone forever? my self esteem is at an all time low..i cant go out of the house coz of the pain which is cozing sever agoraphobia sort of i think..i did have agor b4 i had this fm ..like when i was in my twenties but i got over it..but it has come back and its an ugly monster..so now i have NO friends whatsover..they all have moved away..after the accident i became somewhat intorverted..and then when i gained weight i certailnly didnt wan tto see anyone..well the weight gain has been since 2001 ..my meds do not really helpi take percocet, ambien, soma, and klonipin but i felt better when i wasnt on all that junk and i used to work out.. now i cant sleep and my life is just a mess..im 47 now..single and overweight...when my plan was to be a fitness competitor with friends and a life!! i am giving up...

First off, folks, FM is NOT a disease, it is a condtion or disorder and it is NOT progressive. Hope, you have so many other things going on, I don;t know how they tell what's happening from what issue. Read up on FM. I recommend any of the books by Dr. Goldenberg from Newton MA who is a leader in FM and was before it became "popular" to dx. Both he and his wife have it. And I'm here to say, it can and DOES get better: relaxation techniques, antistress, good eating and MILD exercise all help.

This program is not for FM: it is CBM nad it CAN help with the relaxation stuff, I suppose but then I;ve never tried it.

Know that if you do something that may cause some pain, you will have to take some meds or rest. I go hiking if I feel like it and know that I'll need advil and may pay for it for a couple of days, but I go anyway.

Don;t become the illness, keep your life.
Ann

I have FM and feel that this program will help with the condition. It has helped me. The relaxation tape is a godsend and really helps me loosen those muscles up. Also, all my aches and pains used to scare the crap out of me because when you feel so bad it is hard to believe that nothing is horribly wrong with you. I was anxious and having panic attacks because of how I felt.
I began this program and listened to my body and I do feel better. As for it not progressing, I'm not so sure I agree there based on what I have seen.
Right now, I am going through sound wave therapy and it seems to help. This doctor I am seeing is focused on the atlas vertebrae as the point of origin for FM. Pretty interesting. I also go to massage therapy, eat well, and get plenty of rest.
Also, I excercise every day and I chase after my 3 year old.
I don't believe that we should have to "pay" for being active nor should we have to take medication (even aspirin) any time we do what "normal" people do. I am a believer in homeopathic methods for recovery and it seems to have helped me so much. Good luck to all of you
Erin