EDS Fact 2 - Flexability and Pain

Being flexible is a good thing, right? Well, not always. There is such a thing as too flexible and with that comes certain drawbacks. Whether from injuries occurred from bending too far or from constant stress being too flexible hurts. For many of us we're in constant pain. We've even learned that there's a wide variety of pains that one can experience and that some are easier to deal with than others.

There is sharp pain like when you first get cut. There is throbbing pain like the lingering effects of a bad cut. There is burning pain where it feels like your nerves are on fire. There is a constant aching pain where it feels like you've overworked a muscle. There is radiating pain where it seems to start at one specific point and send out shocks of sharp pain from this point. There is an itching pain where it feels like you have an itch but if you try and scratch it becomes a sharp, burning or throbbing pain. Plus there are endless combinations of the above.

I have personally experienced all these and more. There is the constant ache that feels like your whole body has been beaten up. These I seem to experience out of no where and with no cause. Usually you wake up to such pains. Then the one I hate the most is the one where it surprises you, usually in mid step, with a sudden sharp pain through a huge section of your body (for me it's usually from the middle of my back to the foot of one leg or another).

Many people with EDS are diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic myofascial pain. For many more we're told that the pain is "all in our heads". It's like our nervous system simply gets completely overloaded. Some days we can be completely fine and others the touch of our own clothes is enough to reduce us to tears. Some of us are even constantly in that state of constant hyperactive pain. There is no way to relay how it feels to be in constant pain or to have pain that occurs with no real cause and have there be no way to stop it.

So, the next time we stop dead in our tracks and ask you to just give us a second, please just listen. We don't need a lecture on what we should try or what new things you've found online (believe me, we're always looking). We just need to gather ourselves to face this newest wave of pain and get over the shock of it. We really don't want you to be able to understand, in fact we hope that you never do, but a little patience would be appreciated.