A Fibromyalgia Diagnosis?…Hope Is the First Thing You Need

I’ve seen it often, someone that has just received a fibromyalgia diagnosis, apprehensive and rightfully so…asking others…WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Having had fibromyalgia for over sixteen years now, I’ve been asked that myself. And fibromyalgia can be rough, incredibly rough, but I’m doing okay. So I usually try my best to convey to them the many things I’ve done that I believe have helped me, because I feel that is generally the kind of thing they are enquiring about.

BUT WHAT I’D REALLY LIKE TO SAY is that the first and foremost thing I’d wish for them…is that they would have…HOPE!

Definitely…HOPE!

I would say…grab onto it…hold onto it…guard it…don’t let it go.

And I would have the same wish for someone who has had fibromyalgia for sixteen years…or thirty years…or sixty years.

And I would say that I wouldn’t blame anyone with fibromyalgia if they had given up hope…but please don’t…for hope is the first thing you need.

So let me explain.

Now, why hope…first? Ahead of meds (or no meds) and exercise and diet and whatever else anyone might try?

Because above all and anything else…IT HAS SEEN ME THROUGH.

It has helped me to be determined, and to be motivated, and to be persistent, and upbeat, to do the hard work necessary to do all the things that I’ve needed to do…to succeed…yes, succeed, with fibromyalgia. It’s also my safeguard from feeling despair and helpless and depressed, all of which fibromyalgia seemingly work overtime on trying to make me feel. Fibromyalgia is absolutely unrelenting in this; the fibromyalgia battle, it seems, is as much mental as it is physical.

And I say succeed, because I definitely feel I am succeeding, on some level (the most important level!), every day, no matter what my physical condition has been, if I can stare down fibromyalgia for over sixteen years now…and still remain hopeful.

Because personally, if I have hope, I already feel, that I have it all, that I’ve succeeded. It’s the thing I need, first, foremost and when it comes right down to it, ONLY.

I know I’ll be alright if I have hope. Hope is my starting point.

I say it’s all I need, and I mean it, but having it has led to so much more…SO much more. Having hope has fuelled my stubborn determination to keep functioning…it’s fuelled my undaunted motivation to figure out how to keep functioning…and it’s fuelled my unrelenting persistence to keep doing the things I’ve discovered that help me to keep functioning. Having hope has propelled me forward through all of this. And it’s working! I’ve not only managed to keep functioning…I’ve been very gradually…steadily…and unmistakably…IMPROVING…over the years. Thanks to hope.

And the beauty of hope is, I can get it at any time, at no cost, without any help from anyone else. I’ve talked about it before…I simply change my thinking…for my hope comes from within.‎

And the beauty of hope is that no matter how long I’ve had fibromyalgia…and no matter what twists and turns my fibromyalgia has taken (because, well…my major trigger, stress, is not fully in my control)‎…and it has taken some real downturns (flares) and long setbacks (years)…at times threatening to beat down my hope…I can always RESET (or revive) my hope.

And the thought that always helps me “reset” my hope? Well, I’ve been around long enough to notice that life can always be changed in an instant. Yes, I know, sometimes for the worse, but I’ve seen far more times when I can be struggling along trying to make something in my life improve and it seems like nothing’s going to change…but I persist…until…suddenly, IT DOES…and then…I’m off and on my way again and everything’s looking better now.

Remembering this…that positive change could come any time, in an instant…always revives and “resets” my hope…and I hang in a little longer.

Yes, for sure I don’t always come by hope naturally, so I work on cultivating it. Whenever I realize I need to get a bit of hope back in my life…that I’ve slipped a bit…that I need to CHANGE WHAT I THINK…I give myself a shake…maybe I look at the bigger picture of life…I find some (any) different way to look at it that will lead me to a different way to think about it…a more positive way…a more hopeful way…and there(!)…that’s where I want to be.

I find hope somewhere…ANYWHERE. Personally…I HAVE TO HAVE HOPE!

I always want to have hope.

I strive for it, every minute of every day. I find it in things I’m doing, things I’m happy about for others around me, good news in the world, in the sunshine, in the rain (it saved my life a long time ago), in the stars. ‎Hope in anything, even small things, especially small things! Because that’s often all that’s happening in my day to day life, small things. So I’ve learned to find my hope in them. And, personally,‎ the endorphins I get from my aerobic workouts, always put me on a natural high…hope…I feel super hopeful then!

But one thing I want to be clear about is that when I say I need hope to battle my fibromyalgia, I don’t mean hope that I’m going to be cured of fibromyalgia.

Yes, I’ve had fibromyalgia for over sixteen years now, and I still (more than ever!) believe there’s much to be hopeful about with respect to my fibromyalgia. But, no, I definitely don’t tie my hope to how my fibromyalgia is.

Because if I did that, my hope would decrease (even plummet!) when, inevitably, there is a rough time or a setback (a flare)‎, as happens from time to time with fibromyalgia (sometimes, much of the time!). In a rough time, I need my hope more than ever(!), to be my STARTING POINT, to give me the determination, to give me the motivation, to give me the internal strength, and the persistence, to pull myself back up again…to keep functioning.

What I know is real is my hope has to be about life. Because that transcends fibromyalgia, it transcends everything. If I have hope about life…yes, it carries over to hope about fibromyalgia, but it doesn’t depend on it…it’s much bigger than that.

If I have hope about life…I can face anything.

So I wish hope for others…I wish it for you if you have just received a fibromyalgia diagnosis…I wish it for you if you’ve had fibromyalgia for sixty years! I wish you the life, that hope sustains.

Yes, hope is my starting point…it’s the first thing I need.