“My ‘combat mode’ mind-set enabled me to take back my life again”, I wrote in my previous blog post Combat Mode Born. Yes, it certainly did, all those years ago, while living with endometriosis. I had more energy and less pain…I felt in control and empowered!

Really, it was a pretty simple concept…I mean, anyone could do it…couldn’t they?

Could they? Could someone with fibromyalgia do this? I know the answer, because I DID do it (again).

So let me explain.

Fast forward around ten years…I had three kids now and endometriosis seemed a thing of the past. I guess I’d forgotten about “combat mode”, when I found myself in a new freefall of mysterious symptoms.

Yes, I was definitely freefalling in the distress and panic of having strange serious-seeming symptoms of which doctors could only give me ominous predictions as to what might be wrong with me. I was part way into a three month wait for an MRI, feeling helpless and distraught, waiting for others to tell me what was wrong and what to do about it, when I remembered…“combat mode”!

Well, I was SO familiar with this routine…it was easy to go into “combat mode” again.

I would do everything I could do to feel as healthy as possible. I would work on the things I COULD control, and immediately I felt empowered with the thought that there WERE things I COULD control. Suddenly, for the first time in months, my focus was off my scary symptoms.

I didn’t feel quite so helpless anymore. Motivation took its place.

This time I immediately stepped up the work outs (back to regular frequency) that had taken a back seat during the baby years. I added coffee back in, to help combat the fatigue (but only one cup a day!). I ate healthier (there’s ALWAYS some way to eat healthier!). I worked on whatever I could to increase my overall healthiness to hopefully feel better in the long run, as I was starting to realize whatever was going on with me was most likely going to be around for the long run.

Well, to my surprise, I actually started to feel better in the short run!

By the time I had my fibromyalgia diagnosis three or four months later, I was well on my way to feeling like I had some control over managing my symptoms, probably partly due to the actual changes and partly due to the pro-active and positive “combat mode” mind-set I had now.

I never looked back.

These can be simple things that we find to improve our health in some way, but that’s what’s so amazing. I’ve found doing such simple things can absolutely make a difference because they can help with the fibromyalgia symptoms directly or add to our overall health and well-being, and the positive mind-set we get from making improvements is invaluable(!)…and often I find…this is the really excellent part…there can be a snowball effect!

Often I change one thing for one reason and some other positive benefit happens as well that I wasn’t even expecting!

The beauty of “combat mode” is anyone can do it because everyone can find one (or more!) thing to work on to improve their health in some way, no matter what state their fibromyalgia symptoms are in‎. We can always improve and when that is our focus, we don’t feel so defeated by road blocks or setbacks because our mind-set is so much more positive. No matter how healthy I think I’m living, I always see something in an article or on a TV show, that I could add to my diet or my work-out regime or my sleep habits or something!

This may be an odd way to look at it and people are always surprised to hear my outlook, but in a way, I’ve ‎ended up so much healthier for having endometriosis and fibromyalgia.

And that’s the way I think of myself most of the time, healthy. That’s because that’s what I focus on (and actually…I AM really healthy).

After years of being in my so-called “combat mode”, I have fitness and health standards (I guess you could call it) for myself that I am trying to keep up. So it helps that I am not just trying to survive with fibromyalgia. I override the “survival mode” (as it can feel like) of fibromyalgia with loftier health and fitness goals. I like the challenge and I’m excited to see if I can make a difference with normal healthy things.

I guess I go right over fibromyalgia’s head.

More than anything else, I want to feel as good as possible and have energy to do the things in life that I want to get done.

I don’t feel deprived by making any of these changes (like eating healthier and keeping up regular fitness); what I know is real is that I feel strong for moving towards something better.

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Combat mode! I’ve been in this so-called “combat mode” (as I like to think of it) many years of my life. It’s not as negative as it sounds, in fact, it doesn’t feel negative at all. It feels positive!

I LIKE thinking of it this way, “combat mode”; it feels positive, like I can affect a difference to my circumstances. Pro-active! I draw mental power from this. It gives me a sense of control and that feels empowering‎. I CAN do something…I CAN combat it.

But the beauty of it is…this “combat mode” is easy to do…anyone can do it…because it’s about improving your health in ANY way you can.

So let me explain.

Though I wouldn’t recommend it, having lived with severe, chronic endometriosis throughout my twenties was certainly a good training ground for living with fibromyalgia symptoms. I experienced often daily symptoms, mostly mid-section pain and bloating, and having those seemed to effect my energy level and desire to get-up-and-go. I had an exciting sales position in a fast paced environment. I put in long hours and we used to say we needed to be a “10 out of 10” every day to perform in that environment.

I was determined to succeed so I had to find a way to keep these symptoms from dragging me down (sound familiar?).

My doctor recommended the usual prescription (back then…I’m not sure about now) to help control symptoms of endometriosis, the birth control pill, but after struggling through a few months on it, I went off. It seemed to only add another problem into the mix for me, mild depression. It was hard to be a “10 out of 10” with what felt like a cloud hanging over me.

 So I decided, given that I had these unpleasant symptoms to put up with, that I would try doing anything I could do to feel as healthy as possible in every other way (I definitely had room for improvement!). I hoped being healthier would translate into feeling better overall and maybe, even despite the irritating endometriosis symptoms, I could increase my overall feeling of wellness so that this condition was not totally dragging me down (again, sound familiar?!).

This is how I would combat endometriosis. I would see if I could do anything to help feel better.   I mean, getting healthier… it couldn’t hurt, right? At the very least, I would be healthier. What did I have to lose?

Hence “combat mode” was born and I started taking control of as much as I could…and this made me feel GREAT!….first mentally because I was doing something to help, I was controlling some element of how I felt each day…and then, a lot better physically too.

Coffee was the first thing to go. Even though it bothered my stomach, I drank coffee like it was going out of style. It was giving me stomach rot but I was willing to put up with that as I ran from appointment to appointment having a grand old time in my high energy sales job…until I wasn’t anymore (having a grand old time or willing to put up with it).

Beer went by the wayside too. When I was out for a drink after work or with friends on the weekends, beer was our drink of choice back then. With the onset of endometriosis, beer just seemed to equal bloating. So I started turning down my share of the group pitcher and gladly sipped the odd glass of wine instead which didn’t seem to add to my symptoms.

I stepped up my working out, not to a harder level than I was used to, but just making sure I worked out regularly to help keep me upbeat and my energy levels up.

Combat mode…it seemed to work. I DID feel better.

I had more energy and I didn’t feel near as much mid-section discomfort, as I had eliminated the causes that were not related to endometriosis, the ones I could control.

I felt a lot healthier. NOW, I felt healthy for the most part, with some endometriosis discomfort at times, which didn’t slow me down near as much as before when I was being dragged down constantly by overwhelming symptoms. My “combat mode” mind-set enabled me to take back my life again and reduce the amount that endometriosis was affecting it.

 So what does this have to do with fibromyalgia?

If you are a fellow fibromyalgia sufferer enduring living with fibromyalgia symptoms, you can probably guess the answer, which I’ll talk about in my next blog post Combat Mode Reborn.

For now, I can say what I know is real is that for many years now I have had to learn to live with a whole range of symptoms, some incapacitating at times, some alarming, some downright scary, some unpleasant and some just annoying…and my “combat mode” mind-set has been a life-line for me.

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At first glance, you may think “Is fibromyalgia real?” is an odd question to be included in the title of a blog written by someone who actually has fibromyalgia.

On second glance, if you look a little deeper and discover that I have struggled with fibromyalgia for many, many years, in fact since 2002, AND I am writing this blog for fellow fibromyalgia sufferers, well now this question just seems downright strange and even baffling!

So let me explain.

Knowing I wanted to write a blog using my own experience with fibromyalgia to help others who were engaged in the same struggle, I searched online to find out what others were searching for under the topic of fibromyalgia; I wondered if I might get some sort of hint of what kinds of help fibromyalgia sufferers were looking for.

Well I was surprised, maybe even somewhat offended, to see that the question “Is fibromyalgia real?” was (and still is!) being searched a lot! After struggling and battling for close to a decade and a half now with this debilitating condition, it was shocking to find out that any people still ask this question, much less lots of people!

As I said in recounting my story of living with fibromyalgia, what I know IS real is that “something certainly changed in my body back in 2002 and I’ve been fighting to change it back ever since.”

When I first had fibromyalgia, I remember being aware of many doctors’ skepticism of it. The specialist who initially diagnosed me offered no more than a diagnosis and a pamphlet. I guess I was lucky that my own family doctor, who I have immense confidence in, even sent me to a specialist for a diagnosis rather than dismissing my symptoms as  being “all in my head” or “just depression” as I have heard has happened to many others. But even with my fibromyalgia diagnosis, my own good doctor took over 10 years to start asking about the fibromyalgia aspect of my health during my annual physical.

Surprising…

I had this debilitating health condition, which overruled everything in my life, every day, and my doctor never even mentioned it when assessing my overall health for over 10 years…I was always aware of that and took notice when he finally started asking how I was managing with it. I took this as a signal that doctors were finally starting to realize the reality of fibromyalgia.

So it’s an understatement to say I was surprised to see the results of my search.  People were still asking “Is fibromyalgia real?”!

I guess my sarcastic streak combined with the desire to chip away at this “Is fibromyalgia real?” question (that really does demean anyone struggling with this extremely life-affecting condition and serves to make it even more difficult to deal with) led me to decide to use this as a framework for my blog. So with the main aim of my blog absolutely being helping others living with fibromyalgia, I decided to frame my blog in this bit of sarcasm.

When I really think about it, I guess this very skepticism is at the heart of why I decided to use a blog as the means through which I would reach others living with fibromyalgia.  I figured if I put my ideas out there in a blog, they will be there to be found by whoever WANTS to seek out some additional ideas, support, confirmation of their thoughts, someone to identify with or simply a boost in spirit or inspiration.

My blog is intended for those that want it.  It’s that simple.

Open-minded skeptics are most welcome too, but in my heart I am writing mainly for other fibromyalgia sufferers who will be able to identify with what I know is real.