What is a flare-up?
In EDS like any other chronic pain condition, there will be times when it doesn't matter how much you try to avoid making your pain worse, "flare-up's" will still occur it is to be expected unfortunately, especially with EDS and how hard the muscles are having to work holding everything together all the time, they are likely to complain.. How you deal with a flare-up is more important. A flare-up is basically an increase in severity of symptoms from your usual ones, requiring additional interventions.
The first time you experience one can be very scary as you don't know what is happening to your body at that time and when it will all settle down. Panic is very common as the level of pain can be very severe and last anything from hours to days depending on the cause. They are extremely frustrating especially when you don't get any warning and when they occur at night just as you are going off to sleep. Trying to deal with the flare-up early as possible is best as the longer you leave it the worse your pain will become and harder to manage.
Try and stay calm, easier said than done but stress will only make pain worse by tensing the muscles up
Realise that a flare-up doesn't mean "damage" to your body and it will settle down, just give it time. You should always get any new symptoms checked out by your G.P if things don't settle down.
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| This is how pain from an EDS Flare-Up makes you feel |
