Today I wanted to quickly express some feelings about some scenes in a short film about Fibromyalgia called: “A Happy Seven”. I encourage you to watch the video below first before reading my thoughts. This film is a really powerful portrayal of how Fibromyalgia can feel and look.

I won’t break down every part of this video, only the ones I feel are most important to my personal experiences.

Thoughts

Opening scenes: 00:00 - 01:52

The opening scenes portray how difficult it can be to “keep up” to speed with life and expectations whilst living with Fibro. Arguably this can be hard for anyone, however for anyone with Fibromyalgia this can be much harder, as your body is already “running so fast and hard” that it can be extremely difficult to find the energy to do the simple things you need to in your everyday.

Scene (Being greeted by a relative): 01:52 - 02:20

This is a depiction of the sensory overload a lot of people experience. Personally I find this difficult to watch as in this scenario I would have abruptly pulled back and away, to avoid these overwhelming sensations, which I think can be difficult for loved ones (like my mum) to understand.

Scene (Playing with a sibling): 03:00 - 03:50

This scene is also difficult to watch as it depicts how engaging in such a small thing, like playing with a younger sibling, can cause so much pain and/or fatigue.

Scene (Laying in bed): 03:50 - 05:25

This scene is one of the scenes that resonates with me the most. Lying almost catatonic (of or in an immobile or unresponsive stupor) in bed, staring at the ceiling, with overwhelming exhaustion and pain is something that frequently occurs on a bad day. I often question “why?” and contemplate whether or not I should just give up when I am like this. Tears (as shown in the video), and heightened depression/anxiety are almost guaranteed.

Unfortunately this also contributes to the invisibility of Fibromyalgia as when I feel this way, you likely won’t see or hear from me until I am feeling a bit better.

I find this feeling an extremely difficult one to describe, but I think the video does a good job of showing it.

Scene (Not walking up the stairs): 05:40 - 05:52

A really short but extremely accurate depiction of how the people around you can be unaware that doing something as simple as walking up a flight of stairs can cause so much anxiety. The walk could be difficult, exhausting and painful to begin with, but knowing that even slightly exerting myself can lead to Post-exertional malaise (PEM) which is essentially a worsening of all your symptoms after physical or mental activity, is enough to make me not engage.

Scene (Preparing dinner): 05:52 - 07:57

Getting random, intense, often sharp pains out of nowhere is quite common.

This is also the scene she describes being a “seven”, which is to indicate that her pain level is at a 7 out of 10 where 0 would be no pain and 10 would be the worst pain you can imagine; the happy meaning that we have to come to terms and try to be happy with life even in our pain. It doesn’t make the pain any less extreme, but it does help you overcome the worst times.

A 7 or 6 on some days would be a really accurate placement for my own baseline pain too.

Scene (Gathering and the breakdown after): 07:57 - 10:07

This is by far the most powerful scene(s) in the film.

Initially at the gathering her friends are talking about what they think of Fibromyalgia, near the end you see one friend saying “It’s crazy you don’t even look sick” and another saying “Yeah my Dr says it’s all in your head”. These two statements really send a message of how invisible Fibromyalgia can be and a message of how misunderstood Fibromyalgia really is to a lot of people, including health care professionals.

The ensuing breakdown is the internal conflict of not feeling seen, not being understood and not being able to describe or show how you feel to people, even your friends or loved ones. It’s a very really battle I personally (and I think a lot of people with Fibro) deal with, and is the driving reason I wanted to start writing this blog.

You are fighting and trying so hard, and all you want is to feel normal again. There are times when you just want to give up, and not being understood really makes it harder.

Scene (Crawling to the bath/shower): 11:12 - 14:20

Another extremely powerful scene which I interpret as waking up in a flare triggered by the emotional stress of having gone to the gathering earlier.

I spoke briefly about flares in my previous post but this depiction of a flare is uncanny to me. I often don’t know how to describe it, however the best description I have and the one I usually give to my Dr is that: “I went to bed ‘fine’, and woke up feeling like someone has dragged me through literal hell and back”.

What I see in this scene is what looks like exactly that, being dragged through hell and back.

Crawling to the shower is something I have personally done too in this situation, because I have felt like I was on fire and burning alive. I noticed she turned on the Hot water though which could also be that she is dealing with the opposite temperature dysregulation of being too cold, which often leads to extreme widespread pain especially in the joints and muscles.

Waking up like this is extremely distressing and debilitating and often requires I see a Dr ASAP, as it is really important to get everything under control as fast as possible to avoid worsening of symptoms and feelings of hopelessness and suicidality.

Closing Remarks

This short film is a really powerful and extremely accurate portrayal of how it feels to live with Fibromyalgia. I am really grateful I was able to find it and I really appreciate it being available for free to share.

❤️