Rehabilitation has become a big deal in today’s society, whether it’s in the realm of addiction or if you’re recovering from some sort of injury.
Either way, the rehab approach has been applied to a variety of different situations and disorders, and a lot of famous people with chronic diseases go through rehab in order to get the treatment and care that they need to thrive with the disorder.
What is the rehab approach, and what role can it play in fibromyalgia care? That’s what we’re going to check out here.
What Does the Rehab Approach Entail?
As you likely know, there are a lot of different things that you can do in order to help your body better cope with the issues that come with fibromyalgia.
In some cases, you may be actively involved in the way that you are dealing with your body and your health.
In other cases, you may end up just doing whatever your specialist says, and even though you may ask a few questions, you just aren’t that actively involved in what is going on with your treatment plan.
The rehab approach is unique because it’s very much about you, and how you want to go about taking care of your particular disorder.
Whether you have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or you’re getting past an injury, you are actively involved in your treatment plan.
If something isn’t working, you have control over whether or not you want to keep going with it.
If something is working and someone suggests that you change what you’re doing, you don’t necessarily have to go along with it.
Even though you are still working with professionals and receiving their counsel, you have the reins and you’re putting the direction forward that you want to go in.
Why is this even a thing? Actually, it’s been shown that this form of treatment plan has been around a long time. It’s all about empowering the patient.
If you feel like you have positive control over your health and the situation that you’re in, and you take an active role in making sure that you are getting the treatment that you need in order to be able to have the quality of life that you deserve, then you are going to be more likely to manage your pain well.
It sounds a bit odd, but honestly, that empowerment and the positive mindset can really make a huge difference, if you embrace it and you make sure that you are getting what you need out of it.
If it sounds really “self-help” like it kind of is. While you’re still getting guidance from specialists and they are still keeping track of any problems or changes that may come up during your treatment plan, it’s all about you and how you want to move forward.
Do you see a technique in a book that you want to try? Suggest it and go for it. If you find something on the internet that may be useful? Show it to your specialists and see how you can integrate them. You’re in control.
How Does the Rehab Approach Interact with Fibromyalgia?
Okay, so now we want to look at this in a practical sense. And, since we’re a fibromyalgia site, we’re obviously going to focus on how this could apply to someone who is dealing with fibromyalgia symptoms and wants to get them under control.
But, instead of just listening, they want to play an active role in the entire process, which is empowering and, according to the rehab approach, ends with a better result.
So, what would this look like? You would first consult with a number of different specialists.
You would talk to a physical therapist in order to learn all of the different stretches and such that you can do to help your body to stay in the best condition that it can.
You may still go and visit them, but it wouldn’t be the same sort of thing as those who are in intense physical therapy routines.
Nutrition is at the core of the rehab approach, and it is used for a number of different things.
In order to keep your energy up during the day, but still allow you to go to bed at night, you will have a specific dietary plan that you have to follow and manage in a proper manner.
You avoid sugar and caffeine, and you don’t really eat carbohydrates until later at night. The point for this is so you aren’t “weighed down” by the carbs that you’re eating until it’s almost time for you to go to bed.
Your fatigue is lessened throughout the day, but you’ll feel tired and it will be easier for you to go to sleep when you need to.
If you’re looking at mental health, that’s all about self-help and management as well. While group therapy may be included in the whole thing, it rarely includes standard psychotherapy.
It instead focuses on self-help techniques such as journaling, meditation, coping methods, breathing techniques, and relaxation therapy in order to help keep your mental health stable.
This is, often, where the criticism comes into this approach, because many times, a patient will need a lot more direction than this if they wish to cope with some of their disorders (especially if they are on the severe end) in a healthy way.
Fibromyalgia is definitely an interesting thing to explore, and no one really has an answer for everything related to it. As time goes on, we will likely have more and more answers, but we may end up having just as many questions as we did as well.
The rehab approach is just one of many ways to look at this huge problem, and with the help of enough disciplines, we will be able to find some way to ensure that people are able to cope with the disease more than they could prior.
