- This Friday marks World Fibromyalgia Day
- More than 276,000 people suffer from this pathology in Spain
Grela Bravo is a clinical psychologist, social and intercultural mediator, writer, co-founder of the platform ‘Mujer y Dolor’, but above all she is a woman who has reconciled herself with her illness, fibromyalgia, to the point of “accepting the pain and embracing it”.
This versatile professional has published more than a dozen books, including ‘Sobrevivir al dolor’ and ‘Matemática de la fragibilidad’, in which she helps many people who, like her, know what it is like to live day to day with an illness as hard as fibromyalgia.
“I remember myself from when I was a child with severe back pain. My father took me to do tests at the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona when I must have been about nine years old, for severe back pain. Over the years, they spread and so did their latency or intensity,” Grela recalls in an interview with Servimedia on the occasion of World Fibromyalgia Day, which is celebrated this Friday.
After a long journey through various specialists, the diagnosis finally arrived. “This was 16 years ago,” the writer says. “It is an ‘invisible’ disease in the sense that it is difficult to diagnose.”
This is one of the main obstacles faced by people affected by fibromyalgia. “Pain is an intangible experience. There is no greater ‘added’ cruelty than this invisibility for those who suffer from it and for those who try to understand or grasp it,” Grela laments.
WHAT IS FIBROMYALGIA
Fibromyalgia is a disease characterized by causing generalized musculoskeletal pain that mainly affects muscles, ligaments and joints. In Spain, its prevalence is 2.4% of the adult population, which means nearly 900,000 people affected, according to a study by the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER). Although it mainly manifests itself from the age of 40-49, it can also appear in children, as in the case of Grela. And it is more common among women than among men (4.2% compared to 0.2% of men).
Precisely to respond to this situation, the association ‘Mujer y Dolor’ was founded, of which Grela Bravo is a member, whose objective is to promote research into pain in women from a gender perspective.
The psychologist stresses that fibromyalgia affects “all facets of life, physical and, above all, emotional.” “Chronic pain carries a great emotional toll and it is necessary to train a lot of that other muscle” (that of the mind), “to cope with it.”
But once you reach that point of “armistice with the disease,” of accepting the pain, “strength” arrives, says the writer and communicator. “Knowing and showing ourselves to be vulnerable, conquerable, is having already learned a lot. It is having strengthened our system and our capacity for resistance. Precisely for that reason, for not fighting giants where there were windmills.”
ACCEPTING PAIN
“Accepting fragility is the beginning of all strength.” This statement perfectly captures the spirit that Grela wants to convey in each of her stories. “Creating from pain can be a very restorative tool. It doesn’t free you from it, but in a certain way it reconciles you. Afterwards you can recognize it and get to know yourself better. Understand it. Embrace it.”
Growing up with pain as a companion has not been easy. “It is a very difficult condition to adapt to a routine.” She asserts that they are not heroes and that they live with the disease due to “pure adaptation to the environment, by survival instinct.”
Pain develops in people affected by fibromyalgia a kind of hypersensitivity to stimuli. “Physical pain, like that of the soul, gives us ‘another look’, with eyes wide open, attentive, awake to life. Nothing goes unnoticed, or in vain."
This Friday marks World Fibromyalgia Day and Grela stresses that it has taken years to find specialists trained in this field. “There are now Pain Units in practically all centres and municipalities. There is increasing awareness among professionals and this is almost more important than qualifications because in pathologies such as ours, empathy and sensitivity in healthcare is essential for the patient's health,” she says.
“We are talking about people who suffer and find no relief. They need to find professionals on the other side of the table who do not forget this and accompany their process on a human level as well.”
Fibromyalgia sufferers have to face not only the consequences of their illness, but also the side effects of a part of the population that questions the existence of chronic pain pathology.
Source https://www.servimedia.es/noticias/una-escritora-fibromialgia-asegura-aceptar-fragilidad-es-principio-toda-fortaleza/3689844