Thursday, June 28, 2012

Anxiety and Depression Help: Celebrate Recovery

Hi all! I hope you have had a good week and haven't had any flare-ups.

I talk a lot on this blog about my issues with anxiety and depression. These issues seem to be common among those who suffer with Fibromyalgia. It seems as though we're always looking for ways to keep these bad habits in check- or at least I am.

How am I curbing my worrying and low moods lately? I've joined a group at church called Celebrate Recovery. This program is nation-wide now and lots of churches have adopted it or some other form of it. The program helps those with addictions such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and other substance abuse issues and that's mainly what it's known for. What people don't know is that it's also for people with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, anger problems, and many more bad habits. It works somewhat like AA, but there's praise and worship as well as a curriculum that is Christ-based. I've gone 3 times so far and the feeling of peace it's giving me isn't measurable. I feel so blessed. The church gifted me a Celebrate Recovery bible and it's the easiest bible to read that I've ever come across.

If you struggle with the same issues that I do, I suggest you find a Celebrate Recovery group in your area. Child care is usually provided for free. Don't give up if you're not crazy about the first one you try. I went a couple of years back to one at another church and it didn't help me nearly as much as this one has so far.

I'm excited about this journey to peace that Christ is taking me on. Join me and comment on your experience!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Pregnancy and Fibromyalgia

Hi all! I'm obviously behind in my writing!

I wanted to write this to let you know how I was doing. I'm 6 months pregnant with a baby girl. It's so exciting because she will be our first child. There are a lot of anxieties I've been feeling about being a new mom. Will I be good at it? Will I be able to keep up with her?

My husband and I have already bought the crib and my parents have sent a lot of items such as clothing, bedding, toys and more. We are so blessed! We haven't set up the nursery yet, but everything we need is there. It's a good feeling!

So how have I been feeling since being prego along with having Fibromyalgia? The first 3-4 months were absolutely horrible! We didn't plan the pregnancy, so I had to get off all of my Fibro medicine at 5 weeks. I did it cold turkey because no practitioner could tell me a recommended taper-off dosage. It made me so angry. Why are they prescribing medicine if they can't tell you how to properly get off of them? The withdrawal coupled with morning sickness was really bad. I lost 15+ pounds within the first trimester. I must say I needed to lose it though. One of the side effects (as many of you know) to chronic pain meds is weight gain. Anyway, I've been off all of my meds since I was 4-5 weeks along. I have pain and discomfort, but I must say that the medicine probably did me more harm than good. I'll have to see how things are going once my hormones stabilize after delivery, but I'm planning on staying off of the meds I was taking since they were mainly to help with symptoms, not cure anything.

You know what's been helping me tremendously? Swimming. I absolutely love it. When I swim, it's the best part of my day. I believe that Fibromyalgia has a lot to do with pressure within the body somehow. Swimming seems to relieve me of feeling any pressures in my body and helps me be more flexible. I'm also able to exercise without getting too hot. If I get too hot I feel really sick. Does that happen to anyone out there? Temperature problems and such? What are your thoughts on swimming and the disease and/or pregnancy?