While I was gardening this weekend and pulling out weeds, I thought about a conversation with a recent new patient who told me about her past medical history. Her fibromyalgia symptoms were severe, but came and went, which is so common in this syndrome. My patient underwent many tests and scans. She told me her doctor then reported, “All your tests are normal, so I can tell there is nothing wrong with you. Your symptoms are all in your head.” In my experience as a fibromyalgia consultant the pronouncement that we are fabricating our symptoms and that there is nothing wrong with us can be the most toxic of the weeds–the” poison oak” of negative thoughts that can lodge in our brains. Family, friends and physicians are often well meaning, but since the illness is mostly invisible and they can’t experience what we are feeling, they sometimes minimize, discount or ignore our symptoms.
Symbolically, “weed out” some of the negative comments that may be stuck in your brain such as these:
“You look fine to me…” is a dandelion
“What you need to do is relax….” is an invasive pea vine
“If you weren’t so sensitive and could just push through this….” is an invasive wild onion
“You are STILL sick…? is crab grass
“Fibromyalgia doesn’t even exist. Show me the evidence that it does….” is poison oak
YOU know your symptoms are real and that you are doing your best to feel better. Take a deep breath and pull the “weeds” from your mind’s”garden” so that the positive, healthy thoughts, the “flowers” can grow, thrive and keep the “weeds” out!