A Different Kind of Fibromyalgia Story

For years, fibromyalgia felt like an invisible storm building inside my body. Pain, exhaustion, anxiety and a constant sense that something wasn’t right. Looking back, my story didn’t begin with a fibromyalgia diagnosis. It began decades earlier.

I’m sharing this because I know what it’s like to live with chronic pain, to feel misunderstood, and to wonder whether life will ever feel different. I’m also sharing it because I believe that when we speak openly about our experiences, we give others permission to speak about theirs.

This is my story. Not medical advice, not a miracle cure, and certainly not a suggestion that everyone should follow the same path. It’s the story of how I began moving from simply surviving towards living again.

Where It Really Began: Trauma and Survival

My childhood trauma began when I was four years old. It involved abuse, manipulation and repeated exposure to alcohol by my abuser until I was eleven. For years, I didn’t fully understand how those experiences had affected me. I simply got on with life.

I became very good at coping. Alcohol, partying, adrenaline, keeping busy and pushing myself were all part of how I managed. And on the outside, I was doing well. I built a successful career, took on responsibilities and kept achieving. But looking successful and feeling well are two very different things.

When I decided to become a mum, I stopped drinking for a period. Without some of my familiar ways of coping, emotions I’d buried for years began to surface. Depression, anxiety, panic and PTSD followed.

There were years of therapy, including EMDR and hypnotherapy, as I began to understand and process what had happened to me. That work was an important part of my emotional recovery. However, during those years, my physical health was also changing.

Three Years Searching for Answers

The pain gradually became harder to ignore.  I was living with widespread pain, extreme fatigue, brain fog, anxiety and depression. Some days, even ordinary activities felt overwhelming. This was also happening during my divorce and the isolation of COVID, which made an already difficult time even harder.

I went through blood tests, scans and investigations. So many results came back normal. However,nothing about how I felt was normal.

After three exhausting years, I finally received a diagnosis: fibromyalgia. Having a name for what was happening helped, but it didn’t suddenly make life easier.  I still had to work out how to live with it.

When Medication Didn’t Feel Like the Whole Answer

My treatment included amitriptyline, naproxen and omeprazole. I was also taking HRT and citalopram. Medication can be an important part of managing fibromyalgia, and I know it helps many individuals, but in my own experience, I was still struggling.

My amitriptyline dose increased, yet I didn’t feel the improvement I’d hoped for. After everything I’d been through, I wanted to understand whether there were other things I could do to support my wellbeing. I wasn’t looking for a miracle. I wanted more good days, more energy, less pain and more choice about how I lived.

So I started exploring.

Looking Outside the Box

I began reading about fibromyalgia, talking to different practitioners and looking at approaches I hadn’t previously considered. Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture were part of that journey. Acupuncture helped me feel calmer, and conversations with the practitioner encouraged me to think more about nutrition and inflammation.

My work with an addiction coach also helped me look differently at habits, coping mechanisms and the things we turn to when life feels difficult. I had already made significant changes to my relationship with alcohol. I began wondering whether changing other habits might help me too.

One of those changes was reducing sugar. I also spoke with a nutritionist and began paying closer attention to what I was eating and how I felt.

Removing Sugar: What Changed for Me

Changing my relationship with sugar wasn’t easy. I found the first few weeks particularly challenging, and I recognised some of the psychological patterns I’d experienced when changing my relationship with alcohol.

I persevered. To put the results into context, before making those changes, my pain was often around six out of ten. Within three or four weeks, I noticed that it had reduced to around three, sometimes even one or two. For me, that was significant.

It doesn’t prove that sugar was causing my fibromyalgia, and I wouldn’t suggest that removing sugar will have the same effect for someone else. The process showed me something important: paying attention to my own body and experimenting thoughtfully with my everyday habits could make a difference to how I experienced life.

That encouraged me to keep exploring.

Somatic Breathwork: Reconnecting with Myself

A friend introduced me to Somatic Breathwork, and it became another important part of my journey. I’d spent years learning to understand my thoughts and emotions through talking therapies. Breathwork offered me a different opportunity: to pay attention to what was happening in my body.

I began exploring how stress affected me physically, how I responded when overwhelmed, and how often I pushed through discomfort without recognising what I needed. Breathwork helped me develop greater awareness, slow down and create space to respond differently.

It wasn’t a magic solution. It didn’t erase my past or make fibromyalgia disappear. It became a valuable tool for managing stress, reconnecting with myself and supporting my emotional wellbeing.

The experience meant so much to me that I went on to train as a Somatic Breathwork Practitioner. I also trained as an Addiction Coach. Not because I believe everyone needs the same approach, but because I wanted to help others explore what might work for them.

Where I Am Now: Living, Learning and Still Managing Fibromyalgia

I still have fibromyalgia. I still experience flare-ups. Pain and fatigue haven’t vanished, and there are times when I have to change my plans and accept that my body needs something different from what I’d intended.

However, my relationship with the condition has changed. I’ve noticed that stress and emotional overwhelm can be associated with my flare-ups, so recognising those patterns has become an important part of how I look after myself.

I continue exploring nutrition, gentle strength-building, yoga, movement, breathwork and ways of supporting my nervous system. I’ve also been able to reduce my reliance on medication, with appropriate consideration of my own health needs.

Some days are better than others. Sometimes progress is followed by a difficult week. But I no longer measure my wellbeing only by how much pain I’m experiencing. I also look at what I can enjoy, what I can manage, how I respond to setbacks and how much choice I have in my everyday life.

For me, that’s what living well means.

Chronic Pain Is More Than a Diagnosis

One of the biggest lessons from my journey is that chronic pain affects far more than the part of your body that hurts. It can affect your confidence, relationships, work, sleep, independence, mental wellbeing and sense of identity.

Stress, past experiences and emotional wellbeing can influence how we experience and cope with pain, although the causes of fibromyalgia are complex and different for every individual. That’s why I believe support needs to recognise the whole person.

Not just the diagnosis.

Not just the medication.

Not just the symptoms.

The individual, their circumstances, their experiences and what matters to them.

Turning My Experience into Something Positive

My journey is one of the reasons I created Your Launchpad to Freedom. I wanted to use both my professional experience and what I’ve learned personally to help individuals who feel overwhelmed, stuck or ready for change.

That includes individuals living with chronic pain. I know how difficult it can be to find hope when you’re exhausted, hurting and struggling to see a way forward. I also know that sometimes the most valuable thing isn’t being told what to do.

It’s being listened to, understood and given space to explore your own possibilities.

Living Well with Chronic Pain — Saturday 24 October

On Saturday 24 October 2026, from 10am to 12:30pm, I’m delivering a Living Well with Chronic Pain workshop in collaboration with East Devon Alive, at 37 The Strand, Exmouth.

The workshop is an opportunity to explore the wider impact of chronic pain, reflect on your own experiences and discover practical approaches that may help support everyday wellbeing. It will include discussion, reflection and an introduction to Somatic Breathwork.

It’s not about promising to remove pain or telling anyone to abandon treatments that help them.

It’s about creating a supportive space to explore what living well might mean for you.

Tickets are £15, and places must be booked in advance.

Book your place

If My Story Resonates

Whether you’re living with chronic pain, managing stress, working through difficult experiences or simply feeling that life has become more about surviving than living, I hope something in my story resonates. You don’t need to have all the answers.

You don’t need to follow somebody else’s path. And you certainly don’t need to pretend that everything is fine when it isn’t.

Sometimes the first step towards change is simply recognising that you deserve something different.

This moment is temporary. My freedom is forever.

Claire — Your Launchpad to Freedom