What Everyday Tasks Feel Like for Someone With Fibromyalgia

When you have fibromyalgia, it can impose lots of limitation on your routines, abilities and skills. Fibro pain has an impact of every aspect of your life, like even doing a simple task take a tons of energy and time.

People can’t imagine what it’s like to feel that way, yet still be functioning, so they think it must not be so bad. It is. It’s pretty awful, and it’s really confusing, because you have very little control over how you feel physically. If you feel like I do everyday, do yourself a favor and put these tips into effect to at least manage your Fibromyalgia to an extent.

So we ask a question to our Facebook community “Living with fibromyalgia” that Share an everyday task you struggle with, and what this task feels like for you because you fibromyalgia. So FibromyalgiaResources.com have compiled a list of their answers and believe me these are very true and not exaggerating our conditions.

For many of them taking a shower is painful task, It completely tires me out so I don’t take as many as I ought to. It’s nice to have a clean body and hair everyday, but at what price?. Same goes with household task like cleaning, mopping the floor, etc. Walking, it’s like I’m walking in wet cement and its getting harder the more I walk. Morning exhaustion in fibro is also another major everyday issue. These are the normal activities for healthy person, and it may take a short span to do, but for us its a massive task which drain us off.

There are 27 different things listed in an attempt to relate to anyone who reads this, so if there isn’t anything you relate to at first, keep reading, and maybe you’ll find something. If you want to add to the list, do comment below and if you relate this, do share with others too

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Here is what community share with us:

1. Waking up every morning. Always feels like the worst hangover you’ve ever had ×10. Headache, nausea, pain, sensitivity to everything, desire to not exist. If you’ve never had a hangover, maybe try to imagine being knocked out, trampled and put on a merry-go-round. -Dida

2. Getting out of bed… we’re supposed to wake up rested and refreshed, but I always wake up feeling like I’ve been hit by a train. Getting Out of bed back feels like glass and gonna shatter- Lisa

3. Taking a shower is both a great feeling and probably the singular most exhausting task of the day. Not sure why but it drains every ounce of energy from my body.- Denise (Click here to read on showering problem in fibromyalgia)

4. Walking…even light walking for any length of time to be able to do tasks that require duration, standing for longer than 15 minutes or walking more than 5 or 10 minutes, even for a leisurely walk in a park…that would mean the world to me! – Tina

5. Choosing the right underwear and clothes. Ones that are not going to hurt me in any way. – Sharron 

6. Cleaning the house and kitchen. Sweeping & mopping the floor. 

Also read:

• 14 tips for household chore to avoid fibro flare
• How to clean when you are chronically ill

7. Getting up in morning. Always so tired and in pain. Get out of bed in the morning feels like a truck has run over me.Then I also feel nausea in the mornings too – Marie

8. A clippy pulling my hair back feels like it’s dug into my scalp and putting 5 lbs. of pressure on my skull. Even the loosest ponytail feels as though it’s so tight I have to squint.

9. Trying to fall asleep without any sleep aid or ice packs on my feet. I hurt more and more the longer I lay down, but I’m so tired. This is nightly. I can amazingly fall asleep by around 5am, then I’m in black out sleep. I miss a lot of things trying to catch up on my sleep and I get depressed. It hurts so much and gives me headaches, then I can’t think straight and forget so much. I’m anxious because I don’t know what I’m going to mess up next from the lack of normalcy. It’s getting harder to cope with fibro every week that it is part of my life. – Roxane

10. Since I carry the pain in my shoulders due to a injury. Carrying laundry basket up and down my stairs or when pain is at its worst if I use a shopping cart at a store it hurts to push the cart. -Christana

11. Tryna keep comfortable is very hard no matter what I’m doing, walking sitting laying down. I tried taking my kids out for a walk to enjoy the sun but I only lasted like an hour after they got out of school – Sabrina

12. Bathing the kids. It absolutely exhausts me. Cooking. – Emma

13. Washing the dishes is a nightmare. The water hurts the standing makes me ache. The lifting makes my arms wrists and even fingers sore. The noise hurts my ears, the smells make me feel sick. Washing dishes. Takes all day. I do a few then sit down, do a few then sit down. – Deborah. Lisa added to it that Doing the dishes or anything else that feels like an endurance race like standing up for a long. Of time!

14. Cooking…. I forget I’ve put it on and end up burning it – Melissah

Related:

•  36 Hacks that can make cooking with chronic pain easier
• Cooking tips when you suffer from fibromyalgia

15. Brushing my teeth & hair. Because my jaw hurts when my mouth is open longer than 30 seconds & bevause my arms start to ache after a min or 2. Getting up in the morning… Just beyond exhausted. – Jess

16. Hanging the washing. I swear stabbing myself with a knife could cause less pain. – Savy

17. Getting dressed. Another supposedly easy thing that can feel like you’ve spent hours trying on outfit after outfit while walking around the mall. – Candice.  Samantha also added that I have dreadful burning pains in my arms and shoulders and cannot reach behind me to look a belt, undo my bra etc, so getting dressed up is a big struggle.

18. Braiding my long hair. I have to stop & rest my arms & hands. But… I can still do it. Just takes me longer & hurts. – Amanda

19. Bending over or getting up from a sitting position. Takes every ounce of strength. I feel like an 80 year old woman. Taking a shower zaps every ounce of energy out of me. Usually need a two hour nap after just getting ready in the morning. And I used to love driving for hours. Now driving for 20 minutes causes so much sciatic pain I can’t take it anymore. And I was just diagnosed a year ago. Not looking forward to seeking what the future has in store. – Victoria

20. Walking up stairs, ramps – anything uphill is the hardest for my legs. Using stairs or steps. My joints feel like I have sprains and muscles feel bruised. I always break out in sweat from the pain- Juanita

Also read:

• Some helpful tips for cleaning and organizing when you have fibromyalgia
• Ways to offer help to someone with chronic illness

21. Driving… I cant drive manual anymore because shifting gears hurts too much, it’s gotten to the point where I have people drive me around. – Janna

22. Being a single mother..raising a very active 7 year old by myself with very little help is torture.i just want to run away some days to get some rest- Caroliana

23. Vacuuming. It is tough to do, even simple walk with it is exhausted. Hardest thing for me to do a shampoo my carpet and vacuuming it takes a lot out of my muscles and unfortunately I suffer from OCD and I like to clean my carpets at least every three months and man I can say it’s a bitch sorry- Julia, Sharon

24. Opening a jar,milk or soda… struggling with pain in my arms. I used to bake a lot,now I have to wait for my husband so he can help me stir and pour..feels like shit- Cecilia

25. Laundry is the worst indoor task. I usually push the basket on the floor if it’s to heavy to pick up. After carrying or pushing the basket, then loading the washer I’m so winded I need to rest. But then after crawling up a step stool (I’m short) and leaning into the washer and transferring clothes to the dryer. My shoulders are on fire and the joints are grinding. My whole body aches, I get a headache, I’m winded, my heart rate is up (I also have hashimotos, P.O.T.S. And I’m anemic) my hands don’t want to work anymore and hurt. By the time I get the loads changed and the clothes carried to my couch I’m to tired and in too much pain to fold them.- Tara

26. Touch. My cats walking on my belly or my dog bumping against my thighs and hip. It all hurts. I always felt bad because my ex husband use to get his feelings hurt thinking I just didn’t want him touching me. I always felt I was just being sensitive because of light touch hurting, like pets walking on you or a light hand on my back. – Britt

27. Washing my dogs. They are little and I have to bend over the tub and my pain level just skyrockets. Once they are washed and dried, I’m done in for several days. I used to enjoy our grooming routine so much, now it’s just torture. – Kira

28. Buttoning and zipping. It seem normal task for lots of people, but for us it is not. Hands are numb, feel thick and clumsy, with no strength at all. – Sarah

29.  Making a sandwich. Tuna mayo for example… Stirring the mayo in feels so stiff like I am mixing cement with a broken wrist. I have to stop and start so much that it tastes forever so i am the exhausted and backs sore too. It aches, throbs and feels like i need to rest it because the muscles on fire. – Aikman

30. The brain fog for me is the hardest part (and the chronic fatigue!) I used to read books like they were magazines, id go through 1 or 2 a week at least. Now I cant even get through a text message without wondering what I’m even doing. Thinking clearly, focusing on one task is mental agony. – Charlie, Sheila

31. Laundry because not only does it involve lifting but also going up and down stairs. Also shopping being upright to long takes a major toll on my whole body- Barbara

32. Walking up the stairs. Fibromyalgia has made my knees so painful. There aren’t any solutions either I literally have to pull myself up by the banister and hope for the best or the occasional bear walk/crawl but that’s painful too because of arthritis in my hands- Susan

Also Read:

Things that I have discovered help me deal with my Fibromyalgia 

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Note: Question courtesy The Mighty and This article is inspired from one of our team member, Candida Kinda- Reece.