Fibromyalgia and Alcohol Dependence
Kathy’s story
Kathy* is a 62 year-old retired writer and editor who struggled with fibromyalgia and alcohol dependency. She and her husband were always social drinkers, but after getting sick in 2019, she turned to alcohol to cope. Unfortunately, this only worsened her chronic pain and fatigue symptoms, exacerbating the stress on her body. She also struggled with distressing thoughts and nightmares on a regular basis.
Why did she choose HealthQb?
Kathy had worked with counselors and coaches in the past, including through organizations like PainBC, but felt like something was missing. The suggested changes never seemed to stick. She decided to sign up for HealthQb’s program because it offered coaching, support, and accountability in addition to real-time data tracking to show her progress. She was ready to try an integrated approach that considered all aspects (physical, mental, social) of her health.
Chronic illnesses and diseases are caused and worsened by chronic stress. Chronic stress negatively impacts our nervous system, which results in decreased Heart Rate Variability (HRV)—a biomarker that reflects overall well-being. Our program reverses and builds resilience to chronic stress through personalized, objectively measured, and sustainable behavioral change that gets to each person’s unique root causes. Learn more about the key scientific concepts that inform our work here.
To reverse chronic stress, optimal health behaviors must be developed and sustained. In order to do so, an individual must:
Be ready to make a change
Know how to make the change
Make the change last
If optimal health behaviors are sustained, resilience is developed. HealthQb’s program empower our clients to develop resilience by:
Personalizing the change by identifying the behavior-based root causes of chronic stress
Guiding the change until it’s habitual by consistent practice
Reinforcing the habit with objective data through actionable biofeedback from consumer wearables
The value of health coaching
Kathy received 5 sessions with a certified health and wellness coach as part of HealthQb’s program. She worked with coaching program lead and board certified coach Roxanne Laush, who specializes in supporting clients experiencing chronic pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), fibromyalgia, neuralgia, and other conditions.
Working with a coach helped Kathy better understand the data she was receiving from her daily wellness scores in the HealthQb app and to connect the dots between her health behaviors, how she was feeling, and her biometric data recorded from her wearable:
“I've been keeping a chart of my ANS scores [daily recovery scores], so I think I would have still made the correlations on my own, but I don't think I could have made the strides I have without Roxanne. I feel so empowered now that I can make improvements.”
Kathy’s Baseline BioPsychoSocial (whole health) Assessment identified Thought Awareness, Agency, and Sleep as her prioritized health areas to focus on to begin optimizing her health. Using this assessment as a starting point, Roxanne helped Kathy reframe negative thinking by providing non-judgmental support, frameworks, and resources:
“Roxanne was so supportive and flexible when I mentioned I wanted to stop drinking. She gave me a grid with practical goals about drinking and it was realistic, because there were weeks where I knew I wouldn't be as good. She sent me the STOPP technique for catastrophic thinking and [the] bad dreams I get … The tools that she provided for negative thinking were so helpful. Roxanne was so good at helping me reframe my thinking and catch myself in negative experiences.”
Roxanne reported the following about Kathy’s progress:
“She is starting to use thought reframing automatically when it comes to beating herself up or feeling guilt over her actions. She identifies with a lot of thought errors that she is now working on and she recognizes that she was successful in her alcohol goals although prior to our session she had given herself a hard time for not doing even better.”
Coaching helped Kathy understand the connection between her alcohol intake and corresponding decreases in her Heart Rate Variability (HRV), as displayed in her daily ANS recovery scores. Receiving real-time data each morning about her HRV was a key motivator for Kathy to reduce her alcohol consumption and to continue making positive changes.
How is her life different after the program?
“I'm keeping a graph of my daily improvements and [combined] with my health coach—her tools, the motivation that I needed, when I needed it—has really helped.”
Kathy has a renewed sense of hope in her ability to rewire her nervous system. She now has hard data to understand how behaviors like eating and drinking in addition to her thoughts and feelings impact her nervous system health, recovery and stress resilience.
But the greatest impact? The validation and sense of control she now feels:
“I finally have validation for my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and finally having these numbers show that yes, I have proof that my pain is real. Now I know that I have control, which is my resilience to stress. I have something that I can control and work on.”
Kathy’s results
Kathy participated in the HealthQb program for 4 months.
Her wearable compliance was high (97%), which meant she had consistent access to accurate, real-time data about her nervous system health and resilience on a daily basis. Access to her personal data was highly motivating for Kathy.
During the program, she saw improvements in 5 out of 10 health behaviors identified in her initial BioPsychoSocial Assessment:
Interoceptive (Bodily) Awareness: 30.9%
Personal Agency: 31.%
Replenish (Nutrition): 2.7%
Connection to Community: 56.4%
Sense of Purpose: 2.5%
This graph shows the changes in Kathy’s whole health between assessments 1 and 3.
This translated into a 25% increase in her HRV, which is an objective measure of improvement of her overall health and well-being:
Kathy’s Heart Rate Variability (HRV) increased by 25% over the 4 months she was on the HealthQb program.
“My goals don't have to be all or nothing. This is a journey, an evolution,” says Kathy.
Thank you, Kathy, for your participation in the HealthQb program and for your courage to make positive health changes. You inspire us!
Ready to experience optimal health and well-being?
HealthQb’s quantified approach helps you:
Understand the true root causes of stress
Increasing your resilience to stress
Unlocking actionable insights from your health data
Make lasting changes to your health
Take the first step on your journey to optimal health and get in touch today!
*Name has been changed to protect the client's identity.
