[00:00:00] Rita Black: Fibromyalgia is a condition that affects millions, but remains widely misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and often minimized by the very medical professionals patients turn to for help. Many people with fibromyalgia live with chronic pain, fatigue, and cognitive difficulties, yet find themselves dismissed or told.

[00:00:24] Rita Black: It’s all in your head. In today’s conversation, I am thrilled to be joined by someone who’s changing that narrative in a powerful way. Tammy Stackhouse is a true trailblazer in the world of fibromyalgia, advocacy and support. She’s an award-winning author, the founder of the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute, and the host of the Fibromyalgia podcast.

[00:00:50] Rita Black: Tammy joins me for a powerful conversation about her work with. Fibromyalgia, her healing from fibromyalgia herself, and it takes us through a journey of healing and empowerment. Whether you or someone you love has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, or you simply want to understand this complex and often overlooked condition.

[00:01:17] Rita Black: This interview is one you won’t want to miss, let’s dive in.

[00:01:29] Rita Black: Did that our struggle with weight doesn’t start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of hour weight struggle is mental.

[00:01:40] That’s right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I’m Rita Black. I’m a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process.

[00:01:57] Rita Black: And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery. I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years.

[00:02:22] Rita Black: Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast, where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I’ll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long term and live your best life.

[00:02:43] Rita Black: Sound good? Let’s get started. Hello everyone, and come on in. Have a seat. Get cozy. It’s nice to be here with you this week. I am very excited because I am sitting in my brand new office. It was my old office, but I moved out. I was in my daughter’s room for her. Over a month and in this cramped little corner.

[00:03:14] Rita Black: But now I’m back in my old office. That’s all new again, and

[00:03:20] I swear to God it’s like. My son came home and took a peek in here and he was like, oh my gosh, this is a completely different room. And it is. I’ve moved the desk to a different part. I’ve got a new view and my view is of my clean walls.

[00:03:36] Rita Black: Don’t you love that when walls get painted and is all clean? I am thrilled to be sitting here in this clean. Walled office looking out my windows where I never had my chair turned to. I had a view outside of my Italian cypress tree out in my front yard and a couple of palm trees down the street.

[00:04:01] Rita Black: It’s awesome. come on in and look at the palm trees and the Italian cypress tree with me. We are going to have an awesome interview today. The only thing I’m say I’m interview Tammy now before I dive into my conversation with Tammy Steckel house about fibromyalgia. And I know you are love, love, love this conversation.

[00:04:26] Rita Black: I. I wanted you to know that I have had many clients and students over the years who have suffered from this, and that’s why I’m excited to have Tammy on. And maybe hopefully you don’t have fibromyalgia, but I bet you might know someone who does. My request to you today is to simply share the Thin Thinking Podcast with someone you love.

[00:04:51] Rita Black: Or someone who might be suffering from fibromyalgia, because I really think that they will get a lot out of this conversation. A lot of

[00:05:00] hope. that would make. A huge difference to somebody’s life, and it would mean the world to me. now let me introduce Tammy. Tammy Steckel House is an award-winning author, founder of the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute host.

[00:05:17] Rita Black: Of the fibromyalgia podcast and executive producer of the feature documentary Invisible, Tammy teaches fibromyalgia patients how to take back control of their lives and health using her signature fibromyalgia wellness. Framework that they can break free from the prison their bodies have become and begin living lives they love.

[00:05:43] Rita Black: Hello Tammy and welcome to the Thin Thinking Podcast. I’m really excited to have our conversation today. Yes, me too. Thank you for having me. Oh no it’s my joy. I. Hear a lot about fibromyalgia from many people, but I don’t know. I am looking forward to learning more about it from you.

[00:06:03] Rita Black: How did what started your journey with fibromyalgia?

[00:06:08] Tami Stacklehouse: Oh goodness. most of us, it started, because it was something I was running into, right? My own challenges. I was one of those kids who always had something going on health wise and was always searching for, what’s wrong with me?

[00:06:24] Tami Stacklehouse: Really, and it wasn’t until I was 35 that I finally had the right doctor who could give me a diagnosis. And I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That was back in 2007.

[00:06:40] And the first couple of years, really, it was I was treading water. Nothing really got better, but nothing really got worse. I was on a bunch of different medications.

[00:06:51] Tami Stacklehouse: I ask you. Yeah. In regards to that 2007, when did it become. A word and a diagnosis? Yeah, good question. Good question. we can actually go back in medical literature for 200 years and see descriptions of what is now called fibromyalgia. It wasn’t called that back then. In fact, at the beginning it was seen as a hysterical woman’s disease, that it was psychological illness.

[00:07:21] Tami Stacklehouse: Of course, as most things are seen as a hysterical

[00:07:23] Rita Black: woman’s disease.

[00:07:24] Tami Stacklehouse: Exactly. But then in 1990 was when we the name changed before then, but 1990 was when we really had published diagnostic criteria. And our first medications came out early two thousands. even though it’s been around that long, it’s still new in the medical world.

[00:07:49] Rita Black: Yes. No, that makes. Complete sense. ’cause I remember, I think seeing clients in the early two thousands and they were I’ve got this thing. It’s it wasn’t really a given a name until recently and it’s fibromyalgia. And they mentioned the hysterical woman’s thing and yes. And but, you were given some medications, but they did have medications at the time, but the medication, yes.

[00:08:14] Tami Stacklehouse: I. I was diagnosed right after.

[00:08:20] The first fibro medication came out, which was Lyrica and it, I was, I remember when Vela and Cymbalta both were released as the new thing for fibromyalgia, and I was still fairly newly diagnosed. fortunately I was diagnosed after there was at least something. But a lot of people, you said, if you were diagnosed before then, and if you think about the age of your doctor.

[00:08:47] Tami Stacklehouse: 1990 and medications only coming out in the early two thousands. A lot of your doctors probably never even really heard about this or trained on this. Even our newer doctors aren’t really this isn’t something that’s really taught in depth in medical school. a lot of doctors don’t know what to do with us.

[00:09:06] Tami Stacklehouse: But yes I fortunately. Came in right after some of those things were released and they did help some, and I think that those medications were important for my recovery because it helped manage the pain and some of those symptoms to a point where I could then start working on other things. They were definitely not the long-term fix.

[00:09:30] Tami Stacklehouse: They play a role, but when you are in a place where you can barely get out of bed. When you are, there were many years where cereal was my main meal because I didn’t have, I didn’t have the energy to shop. I didn’t have the energy to then put things away when I got home. And I sure didn’t have energy to cook anything after that or clean up after it.

[00:09:52] Tami Stacklehouse: it becomes this spiral of. Not being able to function and not

[00:10:00] being well, and something has to turn that spiral around. And I think sometimes medication can be the thing that can start us going in the. Upward

[00:10:09] Rita Black: direction. What were your what are the major, for somebody who doesn’t know anything about fibromyalgia, what would you say the major symptoms are and, how did they present to you?

[00:10:20] Rita Black: I’m hearing exhaustion.

[00:10:21] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes. Yeah. there’s really four main symptoms. There’s a whole lot of symptoms, but the four main ones are widespread body pain. with fibromyalgia, our pain really is all over and it moves around. you might hurt in one place one day and somewhere else the next day, which is part of what makes it hard to diagnose part of that hysterical woman’s disease thing, right?

[00:10:48] Tami Stacklehouse: Because there’s, it’s moving around and there’s nothing wrong on x-rays, MRIs, things that. widespread body pain fatigue. Absolutely. And it’s not I didn’t get enough sleep and I’m tired. This is the kind of exhaustion where if you’ve ever had the flu and you are totally wiped out for the day, going from your bed to the couch, that’s the kind of fatigue, right?

[00:11:14] Tami Stacklehouse: Or even if you feel great, going from feeling great to empty. Is quick. if you remember back in the day, those old cell phone batteries we used to have that would last five minutes when they were supposed to be full, right? That’s what our bodies are like. fatigue. We also have unre refreshing sleep.

[00:11:35] Tami Stacklehouse: there are a lot of sleep issues that come with fibromyalgia, specific to

[00:11:40] fibromyalgia, but basically it equates to waking up and feeling you never slept. And then brain fog or cognitive dysfunction. A lot of people get really scared of that one because it can feel dementia or Alzheimer’s or something that.

[00:11:57] Tami Stacklehouse: Fortunately it’s not degenerative. You can absolutely get your brain back, but it can feel like. When you’re going through it. those are really the four main ones. Widespread body pain fatigue, un refreshing sleep, and the brain fog or cognitive dysfunction.

[00:12:13] Rita Black: Is there an age that this usually comes on or it can come on at any age?

[00:12:18] Tami Stacklehouse: It really can come on at any age. It is more common. It’s actually the number one cause of musculoskeletal pain for women in midlife. that’s where it kicks in. But kids can have fibromyalgia, men, women it doesn’t really discriminate, but I, the way I look at it is there’s definitely something in our genetics, right?

[00:12:44] Tami Stacklehouse: You’re eight times more likely to have fibromyalgia if a first degree relative does. we know there’s a genetic component, but then something will happen in your life that sort of flips that switch. To turn it on and the older you get, the more opportunities there are for those switches to be flipped.

[00:13:03] Tami Stacklehouse: we are going to see it more common the older you are, but it can still happen at any age. . . . That all makes sense to me now. Alright. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that explanation. Yeah. Yeah it’s really a

[00:13:20] challenging thing to deal with because we have many ups and downs. You can have a good day and then you can have a bad day, and it’s really until you get to the point where you understand your illness, your body, how to manage things, it can feel you’re a victim to your own body.

[00:13:40] Tami Stacklehouse: In a way, right? You can’t make plans. Somebody says, Hey, you go out for coffee next week? I have no idea.

[00:13:48] Rita Black: It sounds, I have a dear friend who has long COVID. It sounds somewhat, and I don’t know if those have been linked at all, or, yes, they.

[00:13:57] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes. right at the beginning of COID, when people, we didn’t really even have a term for it.

[00:14:05] Tami Stacklehouse: We didn’t know anything about long COVID. We knew that there were some people that would get COVID and not get better. I had several people that I talked to who said their doctor diagnosed them with fibromyalgia because it was the closest thing. They have found that about 30% of people with long COVID will also be diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

[00:14:27] Tami Stacklehouse: I do think we’re see our numbers grow because of that. ’cause COVID iss not going away. And is it di is it seen as an autoimmune? Disorder or, no, that is a really good question. for the most recent history, it’s not been seen as autoimmune. Prior to that. It was. there’s this back and forth.

[00:14:53] Tami Stacklehouse: One of the problems is we don’t really truly know what causes fibromyalgia. it’s we’re seeing

[00:15:00] the leaves on the tree, but we haven’t found the root. And one of the things that, that I think can be really helpful with all of this is to understand that this is leaves on the tree, right?

[00:15:15] Tami Stacklehouse: you might hear this piece, that piece, this is the answer. That’s the answer. And it’s yes, for that part of the problem. We have to like, put it all together.

[00:15:26] Rita Black: you were helped with medication somewhat, and this gave you some relief that you could have the bandwidth to pursue things and find deeper healing for yourself.

[00:15:37] Rita Black: Is that correct? That is exactly right. Yep. Yep. what, what happened after, yeah, as you were. Deeper healing, take us further on your journey.

[00:15:45] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah, absolutely. I said that the first couple of years I really felt I was treading water and I, that wasn’t where I wanted to end, right?

[00:15:54] Tami Stacklehouse: I went back to my doctor and I was like, , what else can we do? And she actually had a health coach working in her office. she connected me with her. And this was way back in 2009. This was not. it is today where things are even more common. But that really was the major turning point for me because all of the things that my doctor had been telling me to do, changing my diet, learning, pacing some of the mindset shifts.

[00:16:25] Tami Stacklehouse: Going to bed on time. all of those habits and things that we do all that lifestyle stuff is really hard to do on your own for most of us, right? having that coach to help me

[00:16:40] troubleshoot, hold me accountable. All of that, strategize with her, all of those things, really that’s where things really started to shift for me.

[00:16:50] Tami Stacklehouse: But on a very, a practical level, the things that I changed I did go gluten-free for a while. For me that was really important at the beginning. I am not gluten-free now, to be super clear, but it was important at the beginning to give my body that. That space, one less thing to struggle with.

[00:17:09] Tami Stacklehouse: I discovered that I had autoimmune thyroid, I have Hashimoto’s. I discovered that I have something called upper airway resistant syndrome, which is very similar to sleep apnea. I got that treated. I was anemic. I had adrenal issues, it was checking each thing, ticking the box, working on the next thing.

[00:17:32] Tami Stacklehouse: And I remember having this thought, this attitude back then of my body is made up of a bunch of parts, right? And if all the parts work better, my body as a whole is going to work better. I just, ticked off each thing.

[00:17:49] Rita Black: And were they all interrelated or were they separate from the fibromyalgia?

[00:17:55] Tami Stacklehouse: the answer is both yes and no. there are absolutely things that connect, right? the symptoms of hypothyroidism are very similar to fibromyalgia, it’s muscle pain, joint pain, brain fog, poor sleep fatigue, those are all the things that I talked about, right? while it. Isn’t a piece of

[00:18:20] fibromyalgia directly connected.

[00:18:22] Tami Stacklehouse: It is adding to the amount of pain I feel, the fatigue I feel. I describe fibromyalgia as an amplifier. whatever you’re experiencing, it cranks up the volume. You stub your toe, it cranks that up, right? if you’re experiencing pain because of low thyroid, it turns that up too.

[00:18:42] Rita Black: .

[00:18:43] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah.

[00:18:44] Rita Black: Wow. you work with your health coach, you turned down you started ticking all the boxes, and did you get to a point then where you felt.

[00:18:56] Rita Black: Good. Normal.

[00:18:58] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes. It was only about six months working with my coach that I felt significantly better. I won’t say not cured, not remission in that point or anything that. I’ve definitely still had fibro symptoms. Significantly better. to give you an idea, I, my husband and I had been talking about going on this trip during the summer.

[00:19:21] Tami Stacklehouse: I started working with my coach in January. And in the summer we were go on this trip and we talked about whether or not we should rent a wheelchair for me, I wasn’t spending all my energy going from thing to thing instead of being able to actually enjoy the thing. And by the time we got to the trip, I didn’t need that.

[00:19:41] Tami Stacklehouse: That’s awesome. Yes. it was a significant difference and that’s when I decided I wanted to pay that forward and become a coach. that was, summer of 2009. And I will tell you today, I am absolutely in remission. The last time I experienced any fibro

[00:20:00] pain was New Year’s Eve 2018. Yeah, it’s been a minute.

[00:20:07] Tami Stacklehouse: And that’s that’s one of the things I make sure that people know, hearing this is that is possible. That is not something that we’re being told very often. But it is,

[00:20:18] Rita Black: it’s go into a remission. Absolutely. Be in remission. How many years was that after? how, there was that six month timeline where you worked with the coach.

[00:20:28] Rita Black: You felt significantly better than you started training as a coach. And how long did it take for you, what you would say enter into remission from the time you started really working on yourself?

[00:20:40] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah, it took some years, it wasn’t, we’re not counting this in weeks or months.

[00:20:45] Tami Stacklehouse: We’re counting it in years. In the grand scheme of things, really, also, not all that long, I was diagnosed in 2007, started working with my coach in 2009. I became a coach that summer and looking back when I wrote my first book, I wrote that in 2015 and I was definitely not in remission. But most of the time, the majority of the time, I didn’t have symptoms.

[00:21:16] Tami Stacklehouse: It would be flareups here and there maybe a couple of flareups a year, those kinds of things. it was absolutely a progression there. But I would say, from 2009 to 2015 is really, 20 14, 20 15, about five years. I would say I was maybe 90% there. And then a few

[00:21:40] additional things, that I worked on with my doctor between that time got me to the point where I was really in remission.

[00:21:49] Rita Black: Yeah. Wow. That’s amazing. Yeah. And how, what given that then and the journeys you’ve been on with other people would you say the same? What is the most. Interesting or surprising thing you’ve learned, not from your own journey, but from coaching others and taking other people through it.

[00:22:08] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes. Great question. one of the things that I started doing, I wish I had done this since day one. But I didn’t. We learn as we grow, right? But I started tracking my client results using something called the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire. And this is what they use in the studies. If you read studies on fibromyalgia, they’ll talk about the FIQR.

[00:22:33] Tami Stacklehouse: I started using that to measure my own client results and pretty consistently. We can bring your symptoms. To about a half of what they are in about three months, which is, yeah, it life changing, impressive, and absolutely life changing. Yes.

[00:22:55] Rita Black: Is this with or without medication? I’m curious. If you, they were using Cymbalta alert.

[00:23:01] Tami Stacklehouse: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s hard to I, I give you that statistic because that really is what I see with my clients. Yes. But it’s not a it’s not that double blind clinical study where nothing changes except the coaching because the job of a certified fibromyalgia coach is to

[00:23:20] get you to the.

[00:23:20] Tami Stacklehouse: Doctors to get you on the right medications to get you to the treatments that are work best for you. yes, for some people that meant adding medications, changing doses. Sometimes that meant new therapies, maybe now they’re going to myofascial release or acupuncture, whatever it might be.

[00:23:41] Tami Stacklehouse: But a lot of it is us managing ourselves. Things diet, I said, going to bed on time, that’s the thing I’m deal with the rest of my life. But pacing, our mindset, how hard we push ourselves, how we talk to ourselves, all of those things are part of the equation. And yeah, the cutting symptoms in half means a lot of things, and it’s a little bit different depending on the person, what they need.

[00:24:09] Rita Black: . Very cool. And three months. And then and that is where they’re feeling much, much better. And then does it, is there another stat of after three months or is, does it really vary from person?

[00:24:24] Tami Stacklehouse: It varies from person to person. The reason I use the three month statistic is that’s where we start everybody.

[00:24:30] Tami Stacklehouse: everybody has done at three months. Not everybody has gone beyond three months, right? that’s a little bit different statistic, but I can tell you that our graduates who have graduated as certified coaches, when they graduate from the point, they start to the point where they fully graduate as a coach.

[00:24:51] Tami Stacklehouse: That’s, year and a half, two years. Depending on how quickly they move through that they’re usually about 75%

[00:25:00] better.

[00:25:01] Rita Black: Oh, wow.

[00:25:02] Tami Stacklehouse: And I did a graduation a couple days ago and the gals that graduated there essentially were symptom free.

[00:25:10] Rita Black: Very cool. That’s amazing.

[00:25:13] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah, it is.

[00:25:16] Rita Black: now when you work with people I think you mentioned you have a framework, how you work through things with people.

[00:25:23] Rita Black: Do you mind sharing some of that with us?

[00:25:25] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes, absolutely. The thing with fibromyalgia is that it is very. Individual, right? Both are experiences of it, but also , all the other things that go along with it, right? I mentioned, I had to get my sleep disorder, my thyroid issues. I had to get those managed in order to have.

[00:25:44] Tami Stacklehouse: My fibromyalgia in remission survey’s a little bit different. we start with assessment. We start with that fibromyalgia impact questionnaire. We start with my fibromyalgia wellness style quiz that connects your personality with how you experience your fibromyalgia. We talk about what you’ve tried, what worked, what didn’t work.

[00:26:07] Tami Stacklehouse: All of those kinds of things. that’s really step one, is that assessment. Step two then is creating the plan where we, the, you and your coach are going to figure out, , I, I need to get a sleep study done. I need to have my thyroid tested. Here are the things that we’re work on, creating that plan.

[00:26:28] Tami Stacklehouse: The third step, of course, is implementing that plan. Now, some people can do that on their own. Most of us, I think, need. Someone to help guide us and need that outside accountability. that is the next

[00:26:40] part. And then I think the most important part for me is the fourth part, which is where we take that and we pay it forward.

[00:26:47] Tami Stacklehouse: Our fibromyalgia community does not have enough hope. And I feel those of us who have experienced that, who have gotten our lives back, I think we need to carry that forward. Whether that means. Being a coach or it’s as simple as when you run across somebody with fibromyalgia, you share that hope with them, right?

[00:27:08] Tami Stacklehouse: It doesn’t, you don’t have to start a whole new business or anything that, but I do think we have a responsibility to pay that forward.

[00:27:16] Rita Black: How many people do you think are out there undiagnosed? how many, how is it still going on where people are not being diagnosed?

[00:27:27] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah. yeah, that’s a, it’s a hard number to know concretely, right?

[00:27:33] Tami Stacklehouse: Because we’re talking about the people who aren’t diagnosed. But to give you some statistics the number of people who are diagnosed is about 6.4% of the population. It’s a little higher than women in women than in men. it works out to about one in 13 women and about one in 20 men. that’s what we know.

[00:27:55] Rita Black: Wow. That’s a very

[00:27:56] Tami Stacklehouse: high percentage. That is a very high percentage. It’s a lot more than most people think. Now here’s the part that makes it a little scary. One of our fibro researchers, Dr. Claw, he has said that he believes that three out of four fibromyalgia patients are undiagnosed. take that number and multiply it by four.

[00:28:17] Tami Stacklehouse: That is how many people we really

[00:28:20] could be dealing with. That’s a whole quarter of the population. I don’t know if I believe it’s quite that high, because that’s a lot, but I do believe that it is higher than that 6.4% for sure. Wow, that’s amazing. Especially in the days post COVID.

[00:28:38] Rita Black: Yeah. you’ve written a couple of books.

[00:28:41] Rita Black: Tell us about the books.

[00:28:44] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah, absolutely. 2015, I wrote my first book. It’s called Take Back Your Life. And it was really written because I had gotten to the point in my business as a coach that I knew I couldn’t help everybody. It’s. There were way more people out there than little old me could do on my own.

[00:29:02] Tami Stacklehouse: I wanted to write that book to be able to help people that I wouldn’t be able to coach directly. that was the original book. It was also written to be the curriculum for my training program to train other people, to be coaches, right? To figure out how to duplicate myself. that was the first book.

[00:29:21] Tami Stacklehouse: The second book I wrote was called the Fibromyalgia Coach. And it was really inspired by one of my clients, actually. She worked she had gotten to a point where she had gotten quite a bit better, but she plateaued. She got stuck, and the more we talked about it, the more it seemed it was her job and the demands of her job.

[00:29:45] Tami Stacklehouse: We’re holding her back. this book, I give eight key questions to ask to evaluate what does success mean to you? How social do you want your job to be? How physical do you want your job to be? To

[00:30:00] think through all of the things that go into us having a career and help you figure out what is going to be the best.

[00:30:10] Tami Stacklehouse: The best fit for you? Obviously for me it’s being a coach. That isn’t be the answer for everybody. But when you have fibromyalgia, there are some things that aren’t the right fit, right? Being a UPS delivery driver running around, carrying those boxes that is probably not the most fibro friendly job.

[00:30:27] Tami Stacklehouse: how do we then evaluate and figure out what that is? that was the second book, and then I did a second edition of my first book because in. 10 years a lot of things have changed. I did an update of Take Back Your Life and I actually have both of those available. If your listeners are interested in grabbing a copy, both of those are available on my website that you can download for free.

[00:30:53] Rita Black: you’ll give us a link to your website or a link to the books on your website?

[00:30:57] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It, the best way to find ’em is fibromyalgia podcast. com. If you’re listening to this, you’re a podcast person, go to my podcast, you’ll find all the deals.

[00:31:12] Rita Black: Cool. How about your wellness style quiz? You have some other I know you have another free a quiz that some people can take that they might find interesting.

[00:31:21] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes. I personally think this is the most fun, it’s my favorite. But the fibromyalgia wellness style quiz, I started thinking about my clients and how their.

[00:31:33] Tami Stacklehouse: Personalities and how they approached life actually affected their

[00:31:40] fibromyalgia symptoms and created its own unique challenges, but also their own unique strengths for how to manage their illness. the fibromyalgia wellness style quiz is actually based off of the five factor model of personality using two of the five factors, and it’s the two that are most.

[00:32:01] Tami Stacklehouse: Disassociated with health outcomes. If you’re curious, it happens to be conscientiousness and neuroticism, which I wish they would call that something different because nobody wants to be told they’re neurotic, even if it’s 2%. But we correlated those and created the perfectionist, the ponder, the playmaker and the prevailer and the perfectionist is pretty much what you.

[00:32:29] Tami Stacklehouse: Think it should be. And somebody who’s a perfectionist usually has no problem doing exactly what the doctor tells them to do, right? That’s their superpower. But the challenge for them is they do everything 110%, and at some point you have to make some choices. With fibromyalgia, you can’t do it all.

[00:32:49] Tami Stacklehouse: And sometimes they push harder than they need to. that’s one example. But you can go out and you can take that quiz, figure out what your fibromyalgia wellness style is, and if you sign up for the advanced profile, I’ll actually send you a series of emails that tell you what your strengths are, what your challenges are, what’s probably causing your flares, how to avoid them, some of those kinds of fun things specifically for your wellness style.

[00:33:17] Rita Black: Very cool. Do you have a.

[00:33:20] Story, a transformational story, with working with someone that you share to leave our listeners with. And then I’ll ask you one last question.

[00:33:31] Tami Stacklehouse: Ah, absolutely. I would love to. I’ll actually share two if that’s . Yeah. Because I think, people are different in how they go through things the first person was someone who took my certified fibromyalgia advisor class, which is a nine week class. I teach you everything I can about fibromyalgia in nine weeks. And she came into this as a patient really struggling. And when she finished the class, she had only improved by 3%. She would joke about, ruining my average.

[00:34:09] Tami Stacklehouse: Not everything can be measured in terms of pain and fatigue and brain fog. The transformation that I saw in her over those three months, in how she interacted with people, how she thought about herself, about her body, there was much that changed that kind of made the way then for. All those other things to start happening, right?

[00:34:36] Tami Stacklehouse: Sometimes we have to get out of our own way before we can start to see some changes. if she hears this, she’ll know who she is. And and that is that’s a. A big transformation that’s not measurable, that I’m very proud of. And then another client that I’ll mention really quick I love her story.

[00:34:57] Tami Stacklehouse: She has a very active

[00:35:00] family. She’s got kids that are professional athletes, a very active family. And with her fibromyalgia, some autoimmune conditions and other things, she ended up being relegated to be the person that held the coats. And that for her became this symbol.

[00:35:19] Tami Stacklehouse: I don’t be the person holding the coats. Yeah. And it’s taken her some years of getting different things diagnosed and treated and finding the right therapies and finding the right exercise to help her build up her own physical strength. But my f. Favorite thing is when I see her posts and she’s out there doing the things with everybody, right?

[00:35:44] Tami Stacklehouse: When they do the Turkey trot and she does the walk, not the run the walk, but that’s what it’s all about, right? It’s not really about reducing our pain or our fatigue, it’s about letting us. Be able to go out and live the lives we live. Yeah. And every time I see somebody doing that, getting to go live their lives and not be the one stuck holding the coats, that’s what it’s all about for me.

[00:36:13] Rita Black: That’s cool. It must make a, it must be very gratifying to help people in that way because it is, it sounds such a tough disease to endure. Oh, go ahead.

[00:36:25] Tami Stacklehouse: Oh, I absolutely agreeing and I was thinking about one of my graduates a couple of days ago who said that when she was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia, she was not thinking about how she was be able to live with it because

[00:36:40] she wasn’t going to, and, take how you will. But to be able to now be the mom she wants to be, do her work the way she wants to do it, be able to go live her life. it is literally the difference between life and death for some people, which is a big responsibility, but also a huge joy.

[00:37:02] Rita Black: Yeah. That is that’s powerful.

[00:37:06] Rita Black: I have one last question for you, Tammy, and then we will, I’ll have you repeat your books and how people can get in touch with you. What would be, if somebody was struggling their first step, what would you say?

[00:37:20] Tami Stacklehouse: I think the first step, whether you’re diagnosed or not, because sometimes getting that diagnosis is a challenge, right?

[00:37:27] Tami Stacklehouse: We talked about that. I think the first thing is to educate yourself as a patient, because if you aren’t educated, then you don’t even know if this is a treatment you try, if you’re even seeing the right doctor, if this is the right diagnosis. the first thing that. People really should do is educate themselves.

[00:37:50] Tami Stacklehouse: And obviously I’ve got a lot of really great resources. The fibromyalgia podcast is one. My books, all of those things. But there are a lot of other good sources of information as well, and a lot of them you’ll find as guests on my podcast. that would be the first thing is to educate yourself. And if you feel that is overwhelming.

[00:38:14] Tami Stacklehouse: I would highly recommend working with a coach. It wasn’t until I hired my coach that I

[00:38:20] finally started to make progress because it was overwhelming. I needed another person’s brain to help me figure some stuff out and really figure out what was work for me, what was move the needle and make a difference.

[00:38:34] Tami Stacklehouse: And don’t be afraid to. Get that help if you need it. Whether that’s a certified fibromyalgia coach or whoever it might be for you. Sometimes we need that outside person to come alongside us and help us see the things that we can’t see. those are really the two things I would say. Educate yourself as much as you can and get help if you need it.

[00:38:59] Rita Black: Do some doctors not see it or give pushback with the idea of fibromyalgia?

[00:39:07] Tami Stacklehouse: Absolutely, and sometimes it’s directly related to how old they are, which makes sense considering, when. The timeline of everything, right? But sometimes I’ll see it even in younger doctors, there’ll be pushback of, this isn’t a real diagnosis, it’s a diagnosis people give you when they don’t know what’s wrong with you.

[00:39:28] Tami Stacklehouse: That is not true. Sometimes there is still the people who think it is a psychological condition, not a real physical one. that can be a challenge. I do think it is important to track down other things that might be going wrong. I said, thyroid as an example, the symptoms are very similar. You don’t call it fibromyalgia if really you need to get your thyroid treated.

[00:39:53] Tami Stacklehouse: But we. Definitely need to have doctors who are. Tracking that

[00:40:00] down, not being dismissive.

[00:40:02] Rita Black: Absolutely.

[00:40:03] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah.

[00:40:04] Rita Black: Oh this has been wonderful. And please one more time I will be putting all these links in the show notes but they can also find you, fibromyalgia podcast. You go ahead and

[00:40:18] Tami Stacklehouse: Yep.

[00:40:19] Tami Stacklehouse: Yeah. Fibromyalgia podcast. com. That’s the website for the podcast. Of course, you’ll find me. You search for fibromyalgia podcast in your favorite app. You’ll find the podcast there. There’s lots and lots of episodes you can listen to out there. The quiz you can find@fiquiz. com. It’s also linked on the podcast website, but that’s where you can find that.

[00:40:39] Tami Stacklehouse: If you go to the podcast website and if you go to fibromyalgia podcast. com, look in the main menu, you’ll see resources listed there, and that’s where you’ll be able to grab the free books and other goodies that are out there.

[00:40:54] Rita Black: Awesome. That’s amazing. Thank you Tammy. This has been really illuminating and helpful and it was a joy to meet you.

[00:41:01] Tami Stacklehouse: Yes, you too. Thank you again.

[00:41:04] Rita Black: Thank you much, Tammy. It was great. And wow, I learned much from speaking with you. And remember the, there’s in the show notes, it are the links to both the quiz that Tammy mentioned and her website where you can go and pick up or download her books. For free. please and do that for someone you love if that they have fibromyalgia.

[00:41:34] Rita Black: Alright, have an amazing week and remember that the key and the

[00:41:40] only key, probably the only key to unlocking the door of the weight struggle. It’s inside you, keep listening and find it. I will see you here. Be with you here next week. Thanks for listening to the Thin Thinking Podcast. Did that episode go by way too fast for you?

[00:42:03] Rita Black: If so, and do you dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight? Head on over to www shift weight mastery. com. That’s www shift weight mastery. com, where you’ll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes.