Article

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS),
a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition, is often
accompanied by fatigue. In this study, inspired by narrative approaches to health
and illness, we explore how women who have regained their health after FMS
describe tiredness along a storyline from before they fell ill, through their
illness, recovery process, and present-day health.
The data derive from
qualitative interviews with eight Norwegian women who previously suffered from
FMS but who no longer had the condition at the time of interview. We undertook a
narrative analysis to understand the complexity of the stories about tiredness
and fatigue and on this basis identified a storyline based on four
sub-narratives: 1) Alarming but ignored tiredness (before illness); 2) paralyzing
fatigue (during illness); 3) making sense of fatigue (recovery process); and 4)
integrating tiredness into life (today). The findings highlight participants'
different understandings and meanings of tiredness and fatigue and the ways in
which these link past, present, and future. Significantly, a clear distinction
between tiredness and fatigue was not always found. Overall, the storyline that
emerges from the narratives is about balancing tiredness /fatigue with everyday
life, and how this unfolds in different ways across the span of FMS, from falling
ill to recovering and regaining health.

Langue : ANGLAIS