My helpful tip is take the painkillers. Stop worrying about getting addicted to them and take them. It took me a while to accept that because I have addicts in my family and I was very adamant never to become one but it's not the same.
I tell any fibromyalgia patient any day of the week that the greatest tip of all times is going to be to create a good routine for yourself. And a good routine being really getting up at the same time every day, eating breakfast at the same time every day, eating lunch at the same time every day, going to bed at the same time every night, and having a really good routine for yourself so that your body is used to you doing the same thing about every day. And if you're able to, if your body allows you to do, and on the days that you can do it, start implementing some form of exercise of some sort. Being able to do maybe walking once a week if you can until you can move up to something more. Um, so something like that would help.
So this helpful tip is one that I'm still learning and one that I'm trying really hard to do and one that I, to be quite frank, am not great at. And that is pausing to evaluate how I feel. My partner notices this in me and I've heard from other people with fibromyalgia that this can be a common thing, that when we feel okay, we try to get everything done. We try to clean all the things. We try to get all the things on our to-do list done. And any of those could be a trigger. And so I am trying to teach myself how to stop after each item on the list or whatever it is I need to do and check in with myself. How am I feeling? Am I feeling a symptom? Am I feeling a flare-up? Do I need a break? Do I need a short rest? Or do I need to stop altogether? On days that I remember to do that, I feel better. I, even if I don't get everything done, I feel not, I feel less bad about myself. And that's something that I do struggle with. So that is my helpful tip, is to pause and think about things.
My helpful tip is to have a go bag, a go box, a go drawer, whatever you want to call it, in as many places as you might need. For me, that is my backpack slash purse, my house, and my work. And that's going to look different for everybody, but for me, I have found that the absolute must-haves in that are a couple of extra pairs of socks, including one that is a warm pair of socks, a weighted blanket, I actually have a weighted blanket at my desk, as well as things like Advil and Tylenol and a variety of medications. I have anxiety medications, so having that, those emergency supplies, wherever I might need them is key for me.
The only helpful tip I would have is so many people use heat, a heating pad, or heated blankets. That used to help me, but in the last few years I've used ice. And an ice pack or an ice mat is what I usually use under me when I sleep, and it seems to take down the swelling in my back. I don't know how much my back pain is from fibromyalgia. I'm thinking it's probably 50-50, plus I have arthritis and osteoarthritis. But a lot of people won't use ice, but I can feel it working. When I sleep on the ice, I can feel my back feeling better and my shoulders.
From what I've heard and experienced, try to keep moving, try to keep as active as possible, especially during COVID. I sat on the couch for two years and did nothing and that didn't help my fibro or my arthritis. So now I get up and I move. I try to walk a mile every day. I do stuff around the house. There's certain things I can't do anymore and that's disappointing, but just try to keep moving. I have two grandchildren and they keep me busy when I see them, so they're worth it. Just keep moving.
I suppose the most helpful tip is when your body demands sleep, you give it sleep if you can sleep because with fibromyalgia sometimes you have problems trying to sleep but you do get chronic fatigue. The other thing is if you can manage to not get stressed because that is sometimes the worst thing. The other biggest tip is sometimes to have a good support network. You know if you've got some good friends that can support you even if it's just for a listening ear or to go for a coffee then that is the greatest thing that like you know on a bad day that you can vent with someone or even if there's a great social media group like we've got in the UK on Facebook well you know there's one on Facebook that's multinational that's great you know for support.
Another helpful hint, take your medication religiously. I know a lot of us have many doctors that prescribe us two, three, even four medications each. And I know it adds up to a lot of medications each night, each morning, a few times a day. And it adds up to a pile of that you end up having to take. Take them religiously. It will end up helping you. Remember, always take your medications religiously. It will help you in the end.
One helpful tip that might not be for everybody, but it certainly is for me. There are a lot of times where I'm just not feeling great. And so I go on social media on TikTok and watch little videos. And I find that dark humor can be just, it can be therapeutic. If I'm lying in bed and just feeling really awful about something, and then there's this joke about, you know, being wrapped in a blanket tortilla and being this little sleepy burrito, you know, yeah, it sucks that that's in the position that I'm in. But just that little bit of humor, even when things are really rough, can lift the depression and a little bit of the anxiety. So I think that's a helpful tip.
The biggest helpful tip I can give to you is communication. Number one, communicate with your family. I know it's hard to be honest with your family when you don't want to tell them the full amount of how much pain you're in because you don't want to be a burden, but trust me, if you don't communicate, they don't know what's going on. So tell them. Tell them the truth because otherwise it's going to end up causing problems. Also communicate with your doctor. It doesn't matter if they think you're pain-seeking or whatever they want to call it. If they won't listen, go to another doctor that will because communication is key. That's the only way you're going to find a way to help yourself.