To understand medical words it can be helpful to break them down into their components, and then translate the components from latin or greek into plain english.

Fibro-my-algia

fibro means fibre

my means muscle

algia means pain

So fibromyalgia is pain in the muscles, ligaments and tendons.

People with fibromyalgia tend to have chronic or prolonged pain, are abnormally sensitive to touch and have super-sensitive ‘tender-points’ in their muscles.

In Julia’s story she says

“I was a sufferer of Fibromyaliga, a condition made up of chronic pain and chronic fatigue. I sought relief through [Feldenkrais] and found this method to be one of the only forms of treatment effective at reducing my pain.

My sessions gave me not only pain relief, but reduced tension, greater clarity and ease of movement, heightened awareness, easier breathing and reduced anxiety/stress levels.”

Read Julia’s story

The chronic fatigue Julia mentions can be caused by poor or disturbed sleep.

Clients with fibromyalgia often say ‘I wake up feeling more tired than when I went to bed’.

Living with pain and other symptoms can also be wearing and a cause fatigue in themselves.

Other symptoms can be:

• stiffness
• headache
• nausea
• anxiety
• depression
• difficulty concentrating
• poor memory
• irritable bowel and/or bladder
• numbness or tingling in the hands and/or feet
• facial pain
• jaw pain
• restless legs

Many people with fibromyalgia have mild symptoms which may be reversible.

The symptoms present, how bad they are, and the interaction between them, can differ between people and even in the same person over time.

More on fibromyalgia soon.