Social Support and Fibromyalgia

Coping with Fibromyalgia is a daily challenge many people face. When I was taking Social Psychology in college, I learned that social support systems help people cope with difficulties and struggles. Thus, having a social support system in place can help you lift depression and reduce your pain.

This post is part of a series of posts on Fibromyalgia. To start at the beginning of the series, please visit my post on Fibromyalgia and Sleep.

Social Support Helps

I have been struggling with Fibromyalgia for a little over two years now, and what I have learned is that having a social support system is very important in determining the amount of pain I feel. When I feel supported and understood, I still hurt, but I find I can more easily go about my daily life.

Furthermore, when I talk with other individuals who experience pain like I do, I don’t feel as alone in my struggles. It often lifts my mood to talk with others, and this often leads to decreased pain. Finally, talking with those who experience pain gives us the opportunity to exchange personal experiences, ideas, and advice about what works for pain, what doesn’t, and how to talk to our families and friends about our struggles.

Who Should I Talk To?

In an ideal world, those of us who suffer with pain on a daily basis would be able to talk to our friends and families as much as we need to about our struggles. I am certainly not suggesting that you shouldn’t talk to your friends and family about your pain, because I believe our loved ones are a good source of support. However, you must be careful about not overloading your loved ones with talk about your pain. Pain is difficult for everyone involved, and I believe that when we talk to our loved ones about our pain too much, they feel helpless because they cannot do anything to ease the distress.

I discovered on-line support groups and forums, and found that they are extremely helpful, comfortable places to talk about my pain and the struggles associated with it. Below are a few places that provide support forums for people experiencing pain.

Healing Well

Healing Well is one website that offers a forum for chronic pain sufferers. It looks like a safe, supportive place to talk about struggles, ask questions, and get non-medical advice. The forum is pretty active, with multiple discussions started and responded to everyday.

You can visit Healing Well at: http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=16.

Our Chronic Pain Mission

Our Chronic Pain Mission is another active support forum for individuals suffering from chronic pain. However, this forum does not have as many members as Healing Well does. This website also offer information about a number of chronic pain conditions and gives members an opportunity to ask a certified doctor questions.

To participate in Our Chronic Pain Mission’s message board, please visit: http://chronicpainforum.yuku.com/.

Yahoo Groups

There are also several Yahoo groups you can join to get some support for chronic pain. Simply visit: http://groups.yahoo.com, enter the keyword/s you want to search on, and sign up for the group/s you are interested in participating in. You will be sent messages over e-mail that you can respond to. Whereas forums have a thread with all of the messages in that thread grouped together, in Yahoo groups, each message in a thread will appear separately in your e-mail inbox.

On-line support groups and forums are a great way to share your struggles and challenges about your pain with others. Not only will the social support lift your spirits, it may reduce your pain as well.