Posts by Fibromyalgia Support Network

By Irene Roth/Blog Editor

When you live with fibromyalgia, it can sometimes feel as though your body has forgotten how to turn down the volume. Sounds may seem louder, touch may hurt more than it should, stress can feel overwhelming, and even a busy day can leave your entire system feeling overloaded. Pain, fatigue, brain fog, headaches, poor sleep, and sensory sensitivity can seem to feed into one another until your body is begging for quiet.

There is a reason for this. Fibromyalgia involves changes in the way the nervous system processes pain and other sensory information. Researchers often describe this in terms of central sensitization, which means that the central nervous system can become unusually responsive to signals coming from the body. The result is that sensations that might barely register for someone else can sometimes feel much more intense for people living with fibro.

This does not mean that fibromyalgia is simply caused by stress or that our symptoms are imaginary. Fibromyalgia is a complex condition involving multiple biological systems. However, understanding the nervous system connection can give us another way of thinking about symptom management. We may not be able to control everything our bodies do, but we can sometimes create conditions that help an overstimulated system settle.

When the Body Is on High Alert

Our nervous system is constantly receiving information and deciding what deserves our attention. When the system becomes highly sensitized, it may respond strongly to physical exertion, emotional stress, lack of sleep, bright lights, noise, temperature changes, or even an especially busy environment.

Many of us recognize this feeling immediately. You might have a day when the television suddenly seems too loud, your clothes feel uncomfortable against your skin, and a simple conversation requires more energy than you have available. Your body may feel restless and exhausted at the same time.

Instead of becoming frustrated with yourself, try recognizing these moments as signals. Your body may be telling you, “There is too much coming at me right now.”

Turning Down the Stimulation

Calming an overstimulated body doesn’t necessarily require an elaborate wellness routine. Sometimes the most effective approach is simply reducing what your nervous system has to process.

You might dim the lights, turn off background noise, put your phone aside, lie somewhere comfortable, or spend several minutes breathing slowly. A warm shower, gentle stretching, soothing music, time outdoors, or sitting quietly with a pet may also help your body shift toward a calmer state.

One particularly helpful practice is extending the exhale slightly. Instead of forcing yourself to take enormous breaths, breathe naturally and allow your exhale to become slow and comfortable. This can encourage the body’s relaxation response without turning calming into another task you have to perform perfectly.

Calm Is Something We Can Practice

Perhaps the most encouraging part of understanding the nervous system is realizing that calm does not have to happen by accident. We can intentionally create small moments of safety, predictability, comfort, and quiet throughout our days.

For people living with fibro, this may mean thinking differently about self-care. Rest isn’t something we earn after completing everything on our lists. Quiet isn’t laziness. Taking a break isn’t giving up. These are ways of reducing the amount of stimulation an already sensitive system must manage.

We may not be able to eliminate fibromyalgia pain simply by calming ourselves. But we can stop adding unnecessary noise to an overwhelmed system.

This September, experiment with creating small pockets of calm. Five quiet minutes here and ten peaceful minutes there may not seem significant, but they can become gentle messages to your body: You don’t have to be on high alert every moment. Right now, you are allowed to rest.

by Irene Roth/Blog Editor

Hi Friends! Welcome to September!

What does it actually mean to feel calm in a body that doesn’t always feel calm? I’ve been thinking about that question as I planned our blogs for September.

Those of us who live with fibro know that calm isn’t always as simple as sitting down, putting our feet up, or telling ourselves to relax. We can be physically still while our bodies continue to feel restless, painful, tense, exhausted, or overstimulated. Sometimes we desperately want to relax, yet our bodies seem to have other ideas.

That experience can be frustrating. There have certainly been times when I’ve wondered why my body couldn’t simply settle down. I might be tired enough to rest, yet pain keeps demanding my attention. Or I may finally have a quiet afternoon only to discover that my body still feels as though it has been through a marathon. This is one reason I became interested in exploring The Science of Calm for our September blogs.

Calm isn’t only an emotion. There are fascinating things happening within the brain and nervous system when we experience stress, pain, safety, relaxation, and rest. For people living with fibromyalgia, understanding some of these processes can help us look at our bodies with greater curiosity instead of constantly feeling frustrated with them. I think that distinction matters.

When symptoms increase, it’s easy to immediately think, “What did I do wrong? Did I walk too much? Sleep too little? Eat the wrong thing? Take on too much? Should I have rested earlier?” We can become detectives investigating our own bodies, endlessly searching for the mistake that caused today’s pain or exhaustion. But our bodies aren’t problems that we have to solve every minute of the day. Sometimes understanding what is happening can be enough to change the way we respond.

Throughout September, we’re going to explore that idea together. We’ll look at the relationship between fibromyalgia and the nervous system and why our bodies can sometimes become so sensitive to pain, noise, activity, stress, and other stimulation. We’ll also explore what neuroscience can teach us about peace and why seemingly small calming experiences may matter more than we realize.

We’ll also challenge some familiar ideas about strength. Many of us have spent years believing that being strong means continuing despite pain. But what if stillness can also be strength? What if noticing that we’ve reached our limit and responding before we completely exhaust ourselves is actually a powerful form of self-awareness?

Finally, we’ll explore the pause—that tiny space between one activity and the next. For people living with fibro, pausing can give us an opportunity to check in with ourselves before automatically continuing. It can help us notice what our bodies are saying while the message is still a whisper rather than waiting until it becomes a roar.

My hope for this month’s series isn’t that we all become wonderfully serene people who never feel stressed or overwhelmed. That wouldn’t be realistic, and it certainly isn’t the way I experience life with fibromyalgia. Instead, I hope we become more curious about what settles our bodies, what makes us feel overstimulated, and how our bodies tell us when we’ve had enough. What might happen if we allowed ourselves to find five quiet minutes before moving on to the next thing?

This September, let’s become students of our own nervous systems. Let’s notice, experiment, listen, and learn. Perhaps calm isn’t something we have to find. Perhaps it is something we can slowly learn to create.

by Irene Roth/Blog Editor

One of the greatest gifts we can offer another person is the willingness to share our story. As fibro warriors, we often wonder whether anyone really wants to hear about our experiences. We worry that we’ll sound negative, complain too much, or repeat what others have already said. Yet the truth is that your story is unlike anyone else’s, and someone may need to hear exactly what you have to say.

When we live with fibromyalgia, it’s easy to underestimate the wisdom we’ve gained along the way. We become so accustomed to managing pain, adapting to fatigue, navigating brain fog, and finding new ways to live that we forget how much we’ve learned. What feels ordinary to you may be life-changing to someone who is newly diagnosed or struggling to cope.

Your words don’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Sometimes the most inspiring stories are the simplest ones. A paragraph about how you made it through a difficult flare, discovered a strategy that helped you rest without guilt, or found joy in an ordinary afternoon can remind another person that hope still exists. Inspiration doesn’t always come from extraordinary achievements; it often comes from ordinary people who keep moving forward one day at a time.

Writing about your experiences also creates connection. Fibromyalgia can be an isolating illness because so much of what we experience is invisible. When you put your thoughts into words, you help others feel seen and understood. Someone reading your story may realize, perhaps for the first time, that they are not alone. Those moments of recognition can be deeply healing for both the writer and the reader.

It’s important to remember that you don’t have to present yourself as having all the answers. People aren’t looking for perfection—they’re looking for authenticity. They want to know how you face difficult days, what gives you hope, and how you continue to move forward despite the challenges. Your honesty may encourage someone far more than a story that sounds polished or complete.

You may never know whose life your words will touch. A blog post, a journal entry you later decide to share, a message in an online support group, or even a handwritten letter can become a source of comfort for someone who feels discouraged. Your willingness to be open may give another fibro warrior the courage to seek help, advocate for themselves, or simply believe that brighter days are still possible.

As writers, we sometimes focus too much on whether our words are good enough. Instead, perhaps we should ask a different question: Could my story encourage someone today? If the answer is yes—even for one person—then your writing has already fulfilled an important purpose.

Never underestimate the quiet power of your voice. Your journey has shaped you, and your experiences have taught you that your words have the potential to bring hope where it is needed most. Someone is waiting to hear a story like yours. By sharing it with honesty and compassion, you remind others—and yourself—that even in the midst of chronic illness, hope continues to grow, one story at a time.