Pain/Fibromyalgia

See also Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue

Often chronic fatigue, chronic pain and fibromyalgia are very wound-up Tone issues. There is a major sub-cortical drive related to long periods of unremitting stress, but the brain responds to it by wrapping itself in cotton (alpha) to anesthetize. The client doesn’t “feel” the emotional material, but it often becomes somaticized, and physical symptoms become major issues. This kind of alpha also is often low in frequency and blocks poorly with eyes open.

I’d probably stay away from SMR with a person with chronic pain:  it makes you more connected to your body, which may not be a good thing.

Chronic pain/fibromyalgia types of pain systems often include a lot of frontal slow alpha that blocks poorly, if at all, with eyes open, and I think HEG could be very helpful with that pattern.

Alpha Intrusions

Alpha intrusions (or alpha delta sleep) are common in fibromyalgia, chronic pain or fatigue.  It simply means that a brain that is using slow alpha as an emotional anesthetic when waking also begins to use it when sleeping as well. Stage 3 or 4 sleep, deep delta sleep, is the physically-restorative part of sleep.  But a brain that can’t stop producing slow alpha (often a common finding in fibromyalgia) produces it even in delta sleep, so the sleep is constantly being interrupted by intrusions of semi-awareness.

You can improve the fibromyalgia/pain/fatigue, anxiety/depression stuff that is likely a part of this client’s life. And yeah, they’ll probably sleep better too.

In my experience, when a person experiences pain (or anxiety, or depression or fear, etc.) that is fairly constant and doesn’t seem to respond to what they try to do to manage it, it’s nearly impossible NOT to experience a sense of loss of control.  How I feel seems to me to be one of the most basic and fundamental levels of control I have over myself, and when I lose the ability to manage that, it undermines my entire sense of control in my life.  That’s not a fault, it’s a reality.  And people who have suffered with that reality for decades often have a very difficult time letting go of their loss of control, simply because it’s woven into their entire experience at a pretty basic level.  That’s also not a fault.  But a trainer who hopes to help someone with fibromyalgia or any of these other chronic issues will be well advised to be aware of those “secondary gain” issues that may block the client from actually doing what they most want to do.