Can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups? Accounts from a loving husband of a woman who has fibromyalgia.

So, can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups?

Last night I found my wife in tears. She struggled to cope with her fibromyalgia pain. I wanted to hug her, she needed to be held, but I had mixed emotions thinking how can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups if the touch alone feels so unbearable to them?

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She suffered but I felt helpless and didn’t know what to do at the very moment.

Trying to figure out how can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups brings plenty of emotions to both partners, including fear of hurting your loved one.

But I went straight to the source and asked women who suffer from this chronic condition and who follow my blog “can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups”, and here is what I found to be the answer:

Every person experiences fibromyalgia pain differently. Some feel the pain inside of their body, other people have the sensitivity outside, such as the feeling of sunburnt skin. The pain can be also mixed and felt everywhere. It depends on the person if you hug them during fibromyalgia flare.

To be sure not to hurt your partner I advise you to simply ask them about it, but do it when they feel okay, not during the fibromyalgia flare.

I asked my wife and her answer was very similar – she said:

“For me yes you can hug me because all my pain is on the inside, I don’t suffer from extreme sensitivity outside, but some people with Fibromyalgia do. I just have a feeling of sore sunburnt skin sometimes, but it’s not extreme.”

What does a severe fibromyalgia flare-up feel like?

Trying to figure out what does a severe fibromyalgia flare-up feels like can be difficult for someone who doesn’t suffer from them, but after educating myself using sources like this one, I found the answer, and I give you one below…

Fibromyalgia flare-ups temporarily increase the intensity of fibromyalgia symptoms. The worsening pain and fatigue are the main symptoms of fibromyalgia flare-ups and are usually caused by stress. Fibromyalgia flare-ups cause insomnia, brain fog, numbness, and tingling. They can last from days to weeks, sometimes even months.

I often see my wife in tears. She suffers from stage IV deep infiltrating endometriosis as well as fibromyalgia, and distinguishing between endometriosis and fibromyalgia pain flares can be hard.

But my wife can always tell what is what. Endometriosis pain feels different from a severe fibromyalgia flare-up. It is also severe, but shorter-lasting, it’s more localized rather than full-bodied. Widespread pain is what my wife describes as fibromyalgia flare-ups.

Fibromyalgia symptoms tend to come and go, hence a few hours of feeling worse is not considered a fibromyalgia flare-up. The term “flare” or “attack” is used to describe a long period of fibromyalgia symptoms being much worse than usual.

How to comfort someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups?

There are many ways to comfort someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups. Firstly, educate yourself about fibromyalgia, be patient, believe your partner, listen to their worries and concerns, openly communicate. Remember that your support needs to be not only physical but also emotional. Ask how can you help them.

There are different aspects of knowing how to comfort someone with fibro, and it isn’t always going to be easy. But if you honestly care about your partner, simply be there for your loved one, it’s often enough.

The most important change I’ve made to improve my support and communication with my wife was the realization that instead of trying to “fix” my partner’s health, I had to work on myself, especially on my lack of knowledge about fibromyalgia.

I began to openly listen to her because no amount of articles, books, even doctors will teach you what your partner is going through. She will tell you all you need to know, without unnecessary fluff, because she’s an expert in how she feels.

I found that a simple massage can help someone with fibromyalgia flare-ups, it always helps my wife. I explain this in the next paragraph.

Can you massage someone with fibromyalgia?

The answer to it is yes, and here’s why you can massage someone with fibromyalgia:

Massage can be used as a holistic treatment, it lowers stress, decreases anxiety, and helps reduce fibromyalgia pain. It helps ease the physical and mental effects of fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia can be effectively treated with trigger point therapy which are painful spots located in bands of muscle fibers.

When my wife began to experience her first fibromyalgia pain, she did not know what it was at the time. We thought it was only pain caused by endometriosis that she was primarily diagnosed with before her diagnosis of fibromyalgia.

I did massage CBD oil into her sensitive body. Even though her skin was hypersensitive to touch, it always helped to lower the pain volume.

Even today, I use CBD in a form of topical balm to massage her during fibromyalgia flare-ups, so yes – you can massage someone with fibromyalgia.

How do you stop a fibromyalgia flare-up?

There are many factors that can trigger fibromyalgia flare-ups, they include a poor diet, hormonal imbalance, physical or emotional stress, lack of sleep, changes in weather and temperature.

In addition, these flare-ups can be caused by a stressful event such as surgery, which was in my wife’s case a laparoscopy for her endometriosis, and it’s what caused her to develop fibromyalgia. Flare-ups can also be caused by doing too much or too little exercise.

So as you can see, to answer how do you stop a fibromyalgia flare-up can be complex and will differ from person to person, however, below you will find an answer to it!

The best tips to stop a fibromyalgia flare-up are giving yourself a break or at least pacing yourself, saying no to the things that cause stress, medicating safely when required, using alternative treatments such as a holistic approach, including drinking water, using CBD, massage therapy, acupuncture, CBT therapy.

So here you have it, short and sweet. I hope this post answered your question “can you hug someone during fibromyalgia flare-ups”, but if you need more information, simply use sources like this one.

In the meantime, if you are interested in finding more details about fibromyalgia, I wrote a “Fibromyalgia for Caring Partners” e-Book. You can get the 1st chapter FREE!

Take care of yourself, or your partner, if you are the one who supports them.