THE CAUSE OF FIBROMYALGIA AND THE TOOL-KIT FOR RECOVERY By David Saul, MD, 3-3-13 THE CAUSE: Sometime

in the past, you were badly hurt. However, the physical plus psychodynamic repercussions from the injuries & injustices you now suffer from are a combination of: Neuropathic and Psychological (somatization) pain-augmentation states. The label of Fibromyalgia (FM) signifies your chronic disabling condition and symptoms. There has been injustice: BETRAYAL; PHYSICAL/SEXUAL ABUSE; ABANDONMENT; HUMILIATION/SHAME/BLAME; SHATTERED ASSUMPTIONS OF GOODNESS AND HONOUR; DEMEANING/NEGLETTING/SHUNNING. (Thats enough examples) The long-term FM symptoms from these hurts to your feelings and/or bodily-parts can sometimes result from your own perceptive degree of threat aimed at your mind/body integrity and ultimately your perceived survival. Fire up the intrinsic Fight or Flight System. All too often and, too falsely, any threat to your person is solely based on your own distorted interpretation rather than an absolute truth. As philosopher Bishop Berkely stated: Nothing is real, its all perception. This emotionally charged mind injury (threatened survival) keeps you stuck in your StoneAge acquired FIGHT OR FLIGHT response (F or F). Without resilient abilities & opportunities to let-it-go and move-on, the result can become FMs enigmatic and chronic unrelenting pain version of PTSD: (my acronym) Persistent / (perceived) Tragedy / Somatization / Deadlock. The Deactivation Somatic Dance can effectively help your mind/body to confront the Tragedy and overcome the Deadlock. Pain is adjusted downwards: softening and lessening, even ceasing. BUT THERE IS MORE. The mind injury relates to you having been wronged. But, it can morph into something more than just an unfair-wrongness to you. Without the appropriate perspective, should you upregulate your fixation on the dead-wrongness of the injury, now you have a catastrophic tragedy on your hands. And as you continue to think and feel that way, then the end-of-the-line wrongdoing you are now suffering from becomes your reality, your life. The dilemma here lies with the self-protective F or F response against a threat any perceived threat, which our Stone-Age evolutionary sojourn has carefully imprinted to be rapidly evoked. Perhaps automatically interpreting threats at higher proportions became necessary for survival in Stone-Age times. But necessary today? Do you really need that level of anger, fear, sadness and disgust? The anger response, often leading the charge by utilizing the brains limbic system, can effectively zero in on the perpetrator of the injury. Or, the finger is pointed inside if you were (or perceived to be) the offending cause. We can even get angry and slam shut an open cupboard door, should we hit our heads on it. Stupid cupboard doors fault (or mine?). 1

Anger directed inwards, outwards or buried inside is still anger and it fuels the fire of PTSD and the Deadlock. Now..., do women tend to bury anger deeper than men do, in general? Can it fester inside women longer than men, longer than necessary? Perhaps there lies a potential conflict for women to deal with. THE RECOVERY TOOL-KIT The antidote for anger is: forgiveness. But, true forgiveness that is effective in recovery must be of the FORGIVE-AND-FORGET style. Total forgiveness for the external or internal perpetrators wrong-fullness becomes an essential component for recovery. The only way to fully achieve a state of true FORGIVE-AND-FORGET is by working towards an INDIFFERNT state of mind. And that is accomplished by continuously saying (to yourself), I really dont care about it anymore. FORGIVE-AND-FORGET can initiate a process towards erasing the wrong-fullness via this inner further processing. The mechanism of indifference then can flow easily from there. An effective approach to achieving a level of consistent indifference is to ask yourself this straight-forward but quite powerful question, DO I WANT TO BE RIGHT? OR..., DO I WANT TO BE HAPPY?. You must pick one. And only one. The one you pick is the one you will get. But you cannot have both scenarios. Never could; never can; never will. Take a guess at which choice we too often run with during our entire lives? But now you must choose to be HAPPY and forego the BEING RIGHT thing. Only then will your brain: think, emote and behave along the HAPPY paradigm. And..., the anger is over. Poof. WAIT, THERE IS STILL MORE. A threatened or an already done-deal violation to your mind-body integrity will both, in a short time, elicit the required concepts of Retribution and Restitution. This further and final mind-body processing has the potential to lead to a permanent closure of the trauma issues for you. It should but often never does. Why? Because R & R does not get achieved. Plus theres another snag. Due to the Stone-Age fixed Paradigm requirements for vengeance, atonement and continued conflict the FORGIVE-AND-FORGET Paradigm in our Modern Age setting can become stalled and hence inoperative. Oh..., what to do? When traumatisation/tragedization occurs, the only form of Resolution towards Recovery rests in dealing with the issues of Retribution and Restitution and then perhaps Restoring justice and gaining a Reconciliation. These two R concepts are well known, in general, to the males of our species, especially the vengeance/retribution part. Males have a long and barbaric history with: wars; torture and punishment; violence in sports, and more. But, it tends to be quite a different story for the females of our species. Yes, women in general, also clearly grasp the Paradigm of RIGHT vs. WRONG. As well, and again in general, women 2

can and do feel the desire for Retribution and Restitution during times of trauma/tragedy. However, manifesting the necessary cognitive, emotional and physical components for enacting vengeance can often be too upsetting for women to pursue. This can in turn then, lead to another damned-if-you-do-dammed-if-you-dont, inner conflict. I need it, I would sure like to have it, but I just cant see myself doing it. Plus, Restitution via the combination of both Atonement and Recompense, while also necessary is one more example of the rarely-achieved component leading to an additional inner conflict. I need it, I gotta have it, but Im not gonna get it. Yet a third conflict for females relating to R and R comprises a societal requirement that the trauma/tragedy be deemed also important to society in general, not specific to you. However, the legal, judicial and insurance compensatory systems do not often pursue that societal course. And these institutions often create added roadblocks to Justice-Resolution (for you) which further compounds your trauma/tragedy Recovery. These three conflicts, which afflict females psycho-physiology much more than males (not a sexist concept, strictly biological and evolutionary based) are at the heart of the cause and the deadlock of FM/Somatization for the 90% of women suffers. As the 19th century German Philosopher, Hegel said, Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights. THE ANTIDOTE Get back to the basics: 1) a full AWARENESS and UNDERSTANDING of the meaning of the tragedy; 2) an unconditional ACCEPTANCE of the meaning; 3) a mind/body shift towards a consistent state of INDIFFERENCE. Then..., there comes the need for something more. It requires keeping an open mind to the tragedy and..., looking for the absolute reality not your personal perception. Did you choose to be right over happy? Did something bad actually happen to you, or was it assessed out of context and perhaps grossly unfair but not tragic? Then again, did you experience something that in the world of coulda-woulda-shoulda, which to you is perceived to be a tragedy? Did you embrace the concepts of retribution and restitution and look for Reconciliations and Resolutions? Or, did you instead try escaping and hiding from them? Did facing the R and R inner conflicts promote and enhance fear and anger for you instead of promoting a FORGIVE AND FORGET strategy for a full closure of the tragic events? Only with alleviating the inner R and R conflicts can a full recovery of the somatization be achieved. GET TO THE POINT OF NO RETURN (FAR AWAY FROM SOMATIZATION) It happened (to me) (but now) its over (and long gone) and Im still standing. Its as if nothing did indeed happen. So what do I (and only I) do now to move on? 3

Trust in the letting- go. No more souvenirs flashbacks and reliving of what did or could of happened. Simply move on. ADDENDUM FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Heres the final page for yet more possibe conflicts that specifically can affect women and promote FM. It has to do with Social-Political-Psychological-Demographical changes over the past 100 years. Womens defined roles in the S-P-P-D Paradigm are now far removed from three generations ago with further (possibly), enhanced changes gaining exponential speed over the past 25-30 years. No longer is the female lot-in-life restricted to: child bearing, child rearing (the larger the number, the better); subservient, low-entry employment opportunities and only when rarely available; rampant sexual and physical abuse; the little-woman, better-half of marriage (good or bad, mostly bad) for life. All those S-P-P-D Paradigms are now almost completely reversed. Additionally, the medical diagnoses commonly promoted by MDs for most female physical and emotional ailments of yesteryear were: Hysteria and Anxiety Neurosis. Again, not now. Not at all. But, while the diagnostic names have changed, the medical establishments attitude has not. PTSD/SOMATIZATION/FM is still viewed as, You look okay to me, its all in your head. Here take some more anti-depressant medication. Could there be inner, psychodynamic, existential conflicts to this rapid S-P-P-D Paradigm shift for women, which may be contributing to developing PTSD/SOMATIZATION/FM? Via S-P-P-D upheavals and refined medical research into chronic pain/FM, the old time grinand-bear-it-in-silence attitude for women is no longer applicable. But can it still be appropriate? In certain situations? How about this? Is silent-suffering always wrong? Can we no longer promote Resilience to adversity, but champion instead Vulnerability and financial compensatory disability benefits? Is that a life? Is that regaining back your life, a life full of opportunities? Note: check a related reference to this possible S-P-P-D conflict in Emily Brazelons new book: STICKS AND STONES: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. Note: did you see the word Rediscover? I did. Perhaps another R word to aid in FM Recovery? Is the Super-Woman Paradigm of today, to have it all: full time career (financial independence.) Part-time motherhood, farmed out child care and demands of marriage. Could that create more than one conflict for women affecting a diagnosis of FM? -----------------------------------------------------I invite any additional, potential conflicts you may find, which appear isolated more to females, but not necessarily just to females. This is a collaborative paper.