Keep On Moving

Fibromites share a common sentiment—keep moving. This sounds counter-intuitive for someone who is in a lot of pain and possibly exhausted, but it really isn't. If you can get yourself in motion, everything starts to loosen up. If you get yourself in motion, your mind is most likely on other things than your pain and exhaustion. As long as you keep moving, even if you hurt, you can keep going. If you stop, it's all over.

Heather tries to stay busy, “This week I have been off from school. I really think that that’s the key—having things to do. If I wasn’t doing stuff this week, I would probably have laid around the whole time, gotten depressed. I’ve been applying for jobs in Des Moines so that keeps me pretty busy.”

It’s frustrating for Misha not to be able to keep going. “I’m a fast paced person and when I have to slow down, or when I have a couple of days when I don’t have anything going on I get into a funk. I’ll decide to watch a movie and then two days are gone. Then I get depressed and it’s hard to get back into things.”

Chris believes her hyperactivity is her way of ignoring the pain, “When some people hurt, they just might want to go lie down. I do the opposite. I become hyper. I think if I stay busy it is going to go away. It doesn’t. It is kind of a subconscious thing. I’ll get up really early in the morning. If I hurt really bad, I think the more I move as long as I don’t stop it will go away. I ignore it. Give me my ibuprofen, stick those pain patches on, and keep going.”

According to Francis, "If I don’t get up, if I stop moving I’m in trouble. That’s why I just keep moving. Because once you stop moving and try to relax then forget it."