Fibromyalgia is a condition that is becoming more and more common, and unfortuately is bringd with it lots of discomfort and pain.
I would like to briefly describe Fibromyalgia from the conventional point of view, and then see how META-Health can help us to understand WHY the body is re-acting with those specific symptoms.
Conventional explanation
Fibromyalgia is an increasingly recognized condition characterised by a wide variety of symptoms. There include chronic widespread pain and heightened and painful response to pressure. Other symptoms are debilitating fatigue, sleep disturbance, and joint stiffness. Some people also report difficulty with swallowing, bowel and bladder abnormalities, numbness and tingling, and cognitive dysfunction. Often people with fibromyalgia might have conditions such as depression and anxiety and stress-related disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. However, not all people with fibromyalgia experience all of these symptoms.
Its exact cause is unknown but is believed to involve psychological, genetic, neurobiological and environmental factors. There is evidence that environmental factors and certain genes increase the risk of developing fibromyalgia – these same genes are also associated with other functional somatic syndromes and major depressive disorder. The central symptom of fibromyalgia, namely widespread pain, appears to result from neuro-chemical imbalances including activation of inflammatory pathways in the brain which results in abnormalities in pain processing. The brains of fibromyalgia patients show functional and structural differences from those of healthy individuals, but it is unclear whether the brain anomalies cause fibromyalgia symptoms or are the product of an unknown underlying common cause. Some research suggests that these brain anomalies may be the result of childhood stress, or prolonged or severe stress.
Many patients experience cognitive dysfunction, which may be characterized by impaired concentration, problems with short and long-term memory, short-term memory consolidation, impaired speed of performance, inability to multi-task, cognitive overload, and diminished attention span.
META understanding of Fibromyalgia
As we can see, no two people with fibromyalgia will have the same set of symptoms, and also that this conditions involves multiple organs/tissue. This multi-dimensional approach is consistent with how META-Health considers every Human Being: we are multi-dimensional beings. This means that when we have an health issue, this will not be just linear (1 organ = 1 conflict), but 1 health issue will be an expression of multiple processes present in our system. And as each single person is unique with its own set of experiences and his own perception about them, each health condition will be a unique combination of emotions, belief systems with related organ/tissues involved.
The best way for me to show how META-Health can help us understand what is beneath this condition is through an example of one of my clients. He presented some of the main symptoms of fibromyalgia: musculoskeletal stiffness and pain, throat/swallowing issues and was very very tired.
So, what are the conflicts, the meanings of these organs from the META-Health perspective.
The muscluloskeletal system is all about ability, capacity and feeling worthy of doing something. When there is an issue regarding these tissues (muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments) it is all about not being able to do something, feeling worthless, not good enough and stuck. The body location is very meaningful, as to which situation, context the issue is related to (for example, if legs are involved, it may be about not being able to move forward, when hand, it could be not being able to hold something, catch, let go or do, etc).
When dealing about throat/swallowing it is about not being able to accept information or not being able to spit it out; if the larynx is involved it is about being paralyzed with fear, and speechless.
Finally, being very tired is generally related to the adrenal glands (hormonal glands sitting on the top of the kidneys), and in particular to the cortex (outer) component. I think that the adrenals are amazing and hold a very deep message for the person. They adrenal cortex is all about moving in the wrong direction, which means doing something we are not meant to do. It means we are not following what we like doing, what makes us happy. When we are in this situation, our body is re-acting with weakness in our adrenals (cortex) producing less cortisol, and thus providing less glucose/energy for the body. Why? Our adrenals are not giving us the energy to do something that is not meant for us!!! They are telling us that we are on the wrong path …
In specific my client was in a situation where he wasn’t doing the job that he liked because he was fearing the parent’s disapproval and subsequently lack of support; he was always tired and felt he could never express what he really liked/what was his truth and always had to accept things. We did some EFT and went back to an event in his life: he was about 5 years old and remembered sitting at the kitchen table with his parents who were having an argument. He just wanted to get up and go and play in the garden because that is what all kids like doing. In that situation the little boy felt that he could not speak and express what he wanted and liked doing, because he knew his parents would have told him off and that his idea was stupid. What I found extremely significant was that in that situation he had the feeling of not being able to get up from the chair, as if his body and muscles were totally stiff! We ended up doing Matrix Reimprinting where he managed to tell his parents what he felt like doing, they understood and acknowledged him, he stood up and went happily to play with his friends, whilst his parents were looking at him and appreciating how much he was enjoying himself.
I find this very powerful and am always amazed how the situations a person experienced are embedded in their bodies, how much the physical symptoms reflect the feeling/thoughts of a person.
