Fibromyalgia

[MrsDylanBlue]

A lot of my FB friends have this and a lot of families I work with.

Is it a new (ish) illness and if not what was it beforehand.

Do we know what causes it.

TIA

Thanks Crochet. Was it a sudden deterioration?

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 20+ years ago. I now believe that it is the physical side of me being autistic (autism diagnosis 10 years ago), of constantly being in 'fight or flight' mode and having tensed up muscles.

Interestingly everyone I know with fibromyalgia either has autism or has a family member with it. So I genuinely believe there's some connection.

Icantcope i really don't care why the Op posted, if she is a reporter then good. Maybe she will shed some light on the suffering people with fibromyalgia go through. I'm tired of how people and professionals dismiss this condition. No body would dismiss Ms yet it seems ok to think people are faking or exaggerating fibro. It is a horrible condition, I'm in my forties but feel like ninety sometimes. Chav i would have always been an anxious person but none of the other things you mentioned. The ironic thing is my anxiety is far better because I don't have the energy or am in too much pain to worry.

Thanks eeny.
The thing with ms though is that its a measurable neuro degenerative condition resulting in disability which can't get better. Fibro is a collection of symptoms with no known cause or trajectory-that's what makes people question it, they assume its something people just say theyve got.
I wonder if it is a reaction to extreme life stress as it is a female condition mostly and imo for women life is much harder, we carry all the stress of children and relationships.

I was on why are you asking on an aibu thread?

@chavtasticfirebanger
Yes, it sounds completely wanky. You would cause offence if I weren't used to pricks commenting on something they have no idea about.
I don't fit your desired profile for a fibro sufferer.

Sorry clandestino. I just dont understand why we have an epidemic of this in the middle aged female population and nobody can explain it.
It isnt a desired profile. But the stigma attached would put me off seeking a diagnosis.
It is the general health equivalent of borderline personality disorder.

Oh I agree Chav, I have done everything the doctor recommended but nothing has helped. In fact my symptoms are continuous and getting worse. While fibro isn't degenerative living with the symptoms on a daily basis takes over your life and soul destroying. I'm not naive that there are a small percentage of people who abuse the diagnosis of fibro, my problem is that then everyone is tarred with the same brush and often dismissed.

I’ve previously been leadto understand it is a mental health reaction to stress, which causes poor sleep, and in turn all over body pain. CFS/ME/Fibro are all essentially the same things, but fibro is more pain symptoms, CFS is more tiredness etc

The mental health origin is controversial amongst sufferers though. Some doctors have even been given death threats for suggesting it is psychological
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2011/aug/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-myalgic-encephalomyelitis

I don’t know why people are so against it being a mental health issue. Mental illness is real and awful! There does seem to be a personality type more predisposed to fibromyalgia IME, people who find it difficult to acknowledge their mental distress and are keen for the problem to have a physical origin. But that’s just my opinion....

Regardless, it’s real and debilitating. Being unable to function due to pain and tiredness is horrible, and I hate it when people call it ‘not a real thing.’

@MimpiDreams Absolute rubbish!!!! It has recently been PROVEN to be caused by nerve damage.

Keep your uneducated, pompous opinions to yourself. You are offensive and rude. I do not have Autism, far from it! Neither does any family member

Sickofpeterrabbit - it’s not been ‘proven to have been caused by nerve damage’. The cause is complex, but is likely to be due to mental health and psychological distress affect sleep and the way the body processes pain:

www.arthritisresearchuk.org/arthritis-information/conditions/fibromyalgia/causes.aspx

@GrannyGrissle You nasty bastard. I have ME & Fibro and this is utter rubbish. Being bed bound and unable to care for your child is NOT a choice! This is hugely offensive

@DrScully Yes it has! I'm not interested in your opinion!! As I've said above, being unable to walk and unable to care for your child as well as you'd like and being stuck in the house is NOT 'all in the mind!!!'

The amount of bullshit on this thread is ridiculous.

Rabbit i think what granny meant was that some attention seeking people say they have it without having been doagnosed, which means they choose when they have it (they dont). Not a genuine sufferer.

When did I say it was all I’m the mind?
Where/when has it be proven to be due to nerve damage? Link please?
Why aren’t you interested in my opinion, but expect us all to be interested in yours?

The link I’ve given is the arthritis research uk current update on fibro. It’s not exactly witchcraft.

You don’t sound well tbh honest, and it sounds like a shit situation. I hope you feel better soon

Rabbit mental health is serious. Pain can be caused by emotional issues. Why is that offensive?

@DrScully - A quote from the very link you have just provided!!!!! related to changes in the way the nervous system processes pain. Some researchers have shown using special brain scans that these processes are altered in people with fibromyalgia.

related to changes in the way the nervous system processes pain. Some researchers have shown using special brain scans that these processes are altered in people with fibromyalgia.

NervousMavis I find it hard to explain my visual disturbances but my optician said I shouldn’t be experiencing any issues with my eyes. My vision goes quite shaky from left to right and I feel dizzy along with it, would that be what you have?

scully CF appears to have a physical basis - recent work shows mitochondrial abnormalities which alter the energy supply dynamics of the cell and differences in various markers. Something is going on, they just don’t know what.
Genuine CF again is probably several conditions all diagnosed as the same thing but there’s definitely something physical going on if you can define the patient pool properly.

Fibro isn’t proven to be caused by nerve damage. There’s no cause identified so far. Research is ongoing.

The presentation our resident expert gave for the trial I mentioned earlier did list mental health as one component. This does not mean that they have established whether this is causal or consequential (chronic pain is shit however you look at it.) and it’s likely to be more of a threshold factor - ie it could be the thing that tips you over rather than a primary cause.

Rabbit - yes, as I’ve said, mental distress causes poor sleep, which causes alteration in the way the body (nerves!) process pain.

But it doesn’t begin with a problem with the nerves, like multiple sclerosis.
It starts with mental distress, and leads to sleep problems, which leads to problems with pain processing. Which is why antidepressants and psycholgicam therapies can help, but can’t in MS

chavtasticfirebanger I have a very high pain threshold. Didn’t go to the doctors with what I thought was just a sore throat for three weeks but tuned out I had tonsillitis and quite bad it turns out. I’ve always had restless legs etc I have no sensitivities to food really other than I won’t eat things I don’t like the feel off but I eat most things. In fact, I’ve more aversion to food recently than before. Pain issues, so constant pain all over only became apparent about 3-4 years ago. I didn’t believe fibro was real because I was told it wasn’t so I didn’t speak about any pain I had as I thought it was in my head. I have mental health issues that stem from childhood abuse and watching my daughter dying and fighting for her life, thankfullly she survived but I now have anxiety, depression and PTSD I can’t look at babies without feeling some upset etc. I don’t think everyone ever fits the profile for everything. We are all different after all.

It was pretty clear that you will get the usual hairy feet creatures crawling from underneath their stones to have a go.
@MimpiDreams - what a shitloads of bollocks. There's no history of autism in my family, from either side.
And fibromyalgia isn't psychosomatic. It's not like "you're stressed, you feel pain". It's a very physical response to physical and mental stimuli which can vary but if I were to describe it in a short form, it would be "the body reacting 2000% to a 80% stimuli".
Also, it's not some kind of a female middle-aged hysteria or crisis. It can hit women more (just like some illnesses impact men more) but if your body goes through all hormonal changes, giving birth, sleepless nights etc followed by the approach of the menopause, it's rather understandable why the major flare-up happens at the time.

What i do question is the perception of pain and the difference between chronic and acute pain. So i heard a woman with fibro describe her pain as a 10 but was sat with a magazine. For me a 10 would be giving birth, where you cant sit still or not scream. So it is a different 10 to acute pain, or is it less than that 10 or is it the same 10 but youre used to it? If that makes sense. It is hard to understand people having a 10, giving them pain relief and its a 9.5, without thinking wtf, because its so hard to comprehend.