Fibromyalgia is a misunderstood condition. One of the first problems with it, is being sure you even have it, because whilst there’s some general consensus on it’s symptom group, it’s hard to diagnose and the mechanisms behind it are poorly understood.
You often go through years of testing, before a doctor gives up and says that you might have fibromyalgia, and that’s where their interest ends because there aren’t any more tests they are willing to do, and the treatment for Fibromyalgia is a handful of drugs, you’ve already tried, that barely work anyway, and usually just cause worse side-effects.
The condition can be summed up as; pain everywhere ; unknown causes. Everything hurts, and without verifying physical evidence, medical practitioners will treat you with scorn if you seek pain medication to even attempt to live a normal life. You are a drug addict in their eyes, because they lump you into the group of people that seek escape from the mental anguish of drug addiction.
That’s the thing, many doctors treat Fibromyalgia as a mental-based condition, the pain is all in our minds, it’s not real because they can’t see a physical cause(yet). They treat it as a cause of depression, rather than the depression being caused by being constantly in pain.
There is truth in that, Fibromyalgia seems to be heightened pain response, that is, the body is reporting more pain than it should. But that’s simply the reality of a body with this condition, you can’t turn that off just like you can’t turn off an itch or feeling temperature.
Fibromyalgia is more than just pain response though, it’s a heightened response to many different stimuli other than touch and pressure. My sense of smell became heightened, light sensitivity, gut sensitivity and more.
Living with fibromyalgia is overstimulation, and it’s hard to come to terms with, because it’s much harder to find peace when everything stands out so much. Even your thoughts become overstimulating.in ways that isn’t helpful or enjoyable, in the form of anxiety or worrying.
Living with Fibromyalgia is hell, I hate it.