We can sometimes get downright angry with our body. It may the result of daily frustration that continues to build up to your threshold level. It may be due to some disease where you can’t live your life the way you want to. Doing things you don’t want to do, and things happening against your will stress you out and raise your anger level. Emotions present another area of challenge to people with fibromyalgia.
Strong feelings like depression, grief and anger are normal reactions to being ill. Common emotional reactions to being seriously ill seem to be intensified by your illness. Fibromyalgia makes emotional reactions stronger than before and harder to control. People become more sensitive than ever before. They have less emotional reserve to listen to their teenagers and husband and talk with them about their concerns. As a result they end up in a circle of misunderstanding and unnecessary recriminations.
Being sick is frustrating, since it brings uncertainty and loss of control. Frustration and anger are understandable reactions to chronic illness. Further irritability seems to be the symptom of fibromyalgia. The frustration of illness varies from not being able to plan daily activities to loss of the future you had dreamed of.
Fighting Depression
Isolation, uncertainty, and loss brought by sickness can lead to depression. We can adopt certain habits and actions that can help us to feel better. If there is mild depression, self helped strategies may be sufficient. If depression is severe, medication and professional help may be needed.
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Here are 10 tips you can try to help yourself to avoid anger.
1. Exercise
Nature can help you a lot and you will feel better after exercise. Nature’s own coping mechanism has a very powerful effect. Read More about here “Warm water exercise for fibromyalgia Pain Relief”
2. Reaching out
Whenever you feel isolated, try to reach out your friends through calls, mail or internet. Just sharing with others what you are feeling can make you feel a lot better. Hang out with your friends and have a short chit chat sessions with them. Read: If your friend with depression is isolating herself due to depression, then what things you should do to help her
3. See things from a fresh perspective
They way you feel and think about things can add to your anger. For example your friend came late and you are angry on her, but when she tells you that she was late because she met an accident then your emotions change to concern instead on anger. Learn to think about things in an alternate way. Tame your thoughts, lot of your anger will disappear and you will feel wonderful.
4. Indulge yourself in pleasant activities
Pleasant activities like playing ludo, needlework, building a puzzle and reading books can help you a lot to fight with the blues. Lying quietly in the sun can make you feel good. Do something that can set your mind in a better state. Indulge yourself in activities of your interest. Find diversions. Playing music always helps. Read More about “How to perform daily activity in Fibromyalgia and CFS”
5. Get professional help
If stress and frustration is making your relations complicated then you should seek professional help. Talking will a professional counselor can reduce your pressure and he can guide you to deal with your stress in a better way.
6. Dealing with negative emotions
Chronic illness puts you at risk for depression. If you feel like that you are depressed or headed down that road, be sure to talk to your doctor. A lot of treatment options are available to help you. We all have too much to deal with, people and situations that aggravate us, and negative aspects of our lives. You may have more than a lot of people, but you can also bet that you have fewer than some. Read Research “Fibromyalgia is Linked with Childhood stress and Negative Emotions
7. Responding to loss
Chronic illness brings a lot of changes to your lives, including loss of friends, unable to enjoy the activities that bring pleasure in your life, and even loss of control over our lives. The depth of loss present us with two more challenges including letting go of the past and building a new life.
Creating new meaning in the face of massive loss is a crucial task in learning to live positively with illness. One person suffering from fibromyalgia shared his personal experience and said that what helped him to accept what he had loss was to acknowledge the loss publicly. He sent out a Christmas letter that announced his illness and said it is unlikely that he will recover. Saying it openly like that helped him accept his limits and to get on with his life. He said he felt as if his healthy self died on the day he got sick and he was just coming to terms with that now.
8. Support Group
Support group can play an important role in controlling anger and stress. It helps to vent out and let the emotions flow. Most of the case anger is caused due to ignorance of the people that are in surroundings, but in support group everyone understands us and help us out. Join the 35000+ Member fibromyalgia and chronic illness community for support, discussion, vent and positivity. For support and Discussion join the group “Living with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Illness”.
9. Play Video Games
I know it sounds odd, but according to the research video games may be what us fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome patients need to help ease our symptoms. Studies have shown playing video games can be helpful to these patients because;
- >>Virtual reality games can reduce pain by distracting the patient’s brain.
- >>The games may help critical thinking skills according to the American Psychological Association’s annual convention show. Read More at Here
10. Writing a diary
You should write what you feel and out your experiences in words. That will be helpful for you. Pennebaker has found that people have fewer health problems if they write about traumatic events in a way that combines factual description and emotional reactions. Another idea is to write a letter to a person you are mad at and tear it instead of sending it to that person.
Emotions play a bigger part than most anything else in your symptoms and the effect last for several days after the emotion has passed. At some moments you can be so happy around people who understand your feelings that you can end up bursting into tears. The feeling of being understood can make you cry. Any event that triggers your hormone adrenaline whether positive or negative can make your symptoms worse.
Some tips work for some people but not for others. So try all and the one you find more suitable stick with it
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