Not only is it real to those to suffer from it, it is real to the families of people with it.

They, not the govt, carry the burden of support after the person can no longer work. I dont know of ANYONE with this illness who has received ANY financial help after diagnosis via insurance claims or Disability or Social Security.

It may be BECOMING recognised by the medical community, but beyond that tiny shred of hope not much more (hope) has been given to anyone with it.

To whom it may concern: i have FMS and by no means is it in ur head the widespread pain and trigger points that are affected by no means is false.. I suffer severley everyday even with treatment,, the depression that comes along is often due to the pain u are in at all times and the sleep u get is nothing short of a nap. contact me at my e mail address listed above thank u and whoever says it is in ur head should get ur own checked out…. do not mean to be rude or facioius but until u experience this urself pls. dont pass judgement about anyone who is suffering from this disease..

You go ladies,,,,,I have it as well and refuse to let it get to me. I was diagnosed as the youngest person (at the time) with Myasthenia Gravis, 40 years ago. MG causes pain aand muscle weakness as well. About 5 years ago, I complained to my neurologist of new aches and pains. He did blood work and said he tested me for FMS. Apparently there are 15 markers for FMS and I had 13. I got into chat rooms and became so depressed on how others were dealing with it. I refuse to let it get to me. I can’t take the standard meds,,,MG patients often take prednosone,,,I refused it back in 79, not wanting to take steroids. I take an old standby called Mestinon. Along with that I use 800 mg of motrin and just keep on moving. You have good days and bad. I found that if I keep on moving, even a little when it is bad, I do feel better in the long run. I run a non profit and try and keep our organic garden up for our clients. One day there will be an answer,,,,,,,,But until then ladies,,,keep on moving and keep speaking out about this debilitating disease.

I just awoke. It takes forever just to want to get out of bed. My shoulders are in so much pain. It burns as if you were forced to carry a 200lb rock for 3 miles. My hands hurt every single day. I don’t sleep well because the burning during the night will awake me. I take antidepressants. Yes, it helps. Because without them you have no desire to want to keep going. It is not in our head. If you touch a person with fibromyalgia in a tender spot you will understand. Please give us respect & understanding. I don’t want sympathy. I want research & help. I want to be heard & understood. It is just as real as any other illness. Many illnesses take research before it can be listed as a “true” illness. So lets get busy. Too many people are suffering.

Fibromyalgia is an affliction of overweight, depressed women who are disenchanted with life and turn to the drugs prescribed for “FMS” (Female Moaning Syndrome.
There are women rotting in their lazyboys stoned on oxycontin because their bleeding heart physician fell for this BS diagnosis. Get up, get moving and quit feeling sorry for yourselves.

I have it FMS as well, I was diagnosed with it about 4 yrs ago ..2 yrs after a car wreck and the pain just was intolerable nothing would help. I was put through epidurals, phys therapy, meds after meds and nothing helped. Pain meds , phyc meds, muscle relaxants. you name it. After 3 or so yrs I gave up the meds and decided to live med free, I will admit the pain is something I really have a tough time with, I have gone through the SS disability application and denials 2 times and you just give up hope…when you can’t afford the medical bills, medications, lost your job due to injuries in the accident along with the medical benefits you had….tried countless times to work and get hurt everywhere you try to work…you can not hold a job due to this issue, you can not put food on the table, clothes on the kids back, pay the bills, let alone afford to go to a doctor…NOW what?? 39 and have lost my life 6 yrs ago……and everyone in your home lives with it everyday, but it doesnt help the fact that they could have so much more if you were healthy and could earn a living again.
SS administration is BS you have a high school diploma go find a job…HAHA the joke is on me!!
I know where you all are coming from I just hope you are not all in the same boat as I am. Best to you all!!

I have FMS and Lupus…..and I know for a fact this is not in my HEAD!!!!! The pain is Very real….I was misdiagnosed for both the FMS and the LUPUS for years…and MUSC finally diagnosed it correctly. The person/s saying this is in peoples head, should experience what we experience at least for one week…then they would know!!!!! I would not wish this pain on anyone! It is very hard to describe but IT IS VERY PAINFUL AND HAS RUINED MY LIFE. I took LYRICA for a while and it helped alot, however I gained so much weight that I was miserable due to be over weight! I hasd to choose, pain or being over weight….I chose being over weight…but then GOD touched me and Im not taking any meds now for LUPUS or FMS….and Im excerising regularly. I’m not completely healed YET, but I am able to function now….without meds. I still have pain most days….but its bearable! Thanks be to GOD
This disease should be studies more………and we should all pray for a CURE! Just like we would for cancer or any other disease.

Probably neurological and hereditary too.
My Dad developed it before there was even a name for.
A few years ago I was diagnosed.

Interestingly, Dad, his Mom, and now I, have Neuropathy, albeit different forms. And my Aunt, Dad’s sister, was diagnosed with MS about a decade back.

Something is neurologically wrong in this family and seems it might be passed on genetically.

Actually Fibromyalgia is quite treatable and is cured rather quickly. The reason that the rather simple cure is not well known is that if it were, it would have a significant impact to drug company profits. Indeed, Fibromyalgia is only one manifestation of what I call “Serotonin deficiency condition.” Serotonin is one of the two neurotransmitters that are the main cause of this disease. The other neurotransmitter is dopamine. For most of the ladies that have FM, they also have an issue in the adrenal hormone system that is easily fixed as well.

The cure for FM is known in the medical community and there are physicians that are trained by one medical school that claim a 100% success rate in curing this disease. As of yet, they do not seem to have realized that FM is only one small manifestation of the condition, but at least it is a start.

This situation has angered me to a point where I am in the process of writing a book that will go into detail all of the ramifications of this condition. In the mean time, should a reader of this reply want to have help in solving their problem with FM, feel free to write me at rfrenchwts@aol.com. I would only ask that I be able to include a brief description of your condition and subsequent cure in my book.

Yes! Despite the non-believers, this illness DOES exist and DOES affect not only the patient, but also her/his family, friends and other social relationships. I am so fortunate to have a spouse who is a caring, responsive individual, and both family and close friends who understand when I must cancel family gatherings, meetings and other scheduled events due to the tremendous fatigue that accompanies my Fibromyalgia. Trying to lead a semblance of a “normal” life can be difficult to the extreme.

I have lately found that a personalized set of vitamins, etc., suggested by Dr. Andrew Weil on his website, have been helpful in giving me some extra strength to move about and somewhat combat the fatigue. Movement (also encouraged as “exercise”)is a definite answer to feeling better. However, until the tremendous fatigue is addressed, even simple movement such as dressing, using the bathroom, fixing one’s own meals, etc., can be very wearing. My primary care physician kept talking about my having Fibromyalgia, and I kept disagreeing, even though my days were filled with pain and extreme weariness. After several years of this “back and forth” discussion, researching the disease and visits to a neurologist, I had to admit that my PCP was correct!

So, for those who do not feel that Fibromyalgia exists, and/or does not adversely affect individuals, I hope you or a loved one never fall victim to this disease! For the disservice you give to those of us who now suffer will come back to haunt you in more ways than you can now imagine!

I have suffered for the past seven years with this and it has not only hurt me, but my family as well, because when it hits I can’t do all the things I normally do in a day. It is not in my head, and it hurts me to hear that these so called doctors are saying that we are lazy, depressed, funny or it is self-induced. I was always active, and on the go, and I still try to be as much as possible. My symptoms come and go. I have my good days and I have my extremely bad days where I can barely move, all I want to do is sleep, it hurts if someone touches me, or to move, but on my good days which I thank God for I’m back up and running. It is very depressing when you are a very active person and have been all your life, and you go to sleep at night thinking about all the things you want to accomplish the next day, and you wake up the very next morning feeling like you were run over by a mack truck a few times. I have cried many days wishing I could feel like myself again. I could go a few weeks feeling like I’m back to normal and then boom it hits me like a ton of bricks. Nothing changed in my life, no bad experiences to make me self-induce these symptoms. I always look at the brighter side and never think about feeling like this again. In fact like all the rest of you, all I want is to be able to keep going and living my life just like I do on my good days. I wish they could feel what we feel for one day then maybe they wouldn’t say all those terrible things about us. We keep pushing through hoping that the doctors we see will take us seriously, and that tomorrow will be a good day for us. Who would want to feel like this? They will say sympathy. Well, I don’t tell anyone, so there is no sympathy. My immediate family knows when I’m having a bad days because of the way I move, or because I want to just sleep, but there is no sympathy because I still have to keep going, and get what I can done.

To All That Have This Whether Mild Or Severe Know You Are Not Alone, and God Willing Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day For Us All!

While I do not have fibromyalgia, I do share some of the same anger at physicians who do not understand your pain. I have Chronic Myofascial Pain, formerly myofascial pain syndrome. I had a very good Physical Medicine doctor who recognized and understood the pain I experience. She provided me with more than medications, injections, etc, to relieve the pain. Her support and recognition of the problem gave me confidence that she was sympathetic and believed me when I said I was in pain. While I am happy that she was able to take an early retirement, I do miss my appointments with her. I urge everyone who suffers from fibromyalgia to seek help from a physical medicine physician, they are more likely than either a GP or Orthopaedics doctor to have up to date knowledge about your condition. Good luck to all.

Having FMS/CFS for 22 yrs. I tried numerous treatments, and the ability to continue working. One product was ephedra, shortly after it was banned in the USA, I had to go part-time, that lasted about 10 yrs. I had to have a attorny to get Disability from the SSA.

After ALOT of stressfull life changes, I lost my family due to this FMS/CFS and other limiting condition’s, yet what makes me different: The Judge, and my first attorny’s belief and or opinion about FMS/CFS became apparent at the PDL, I wasn’t awarded any support, still being denied after 3 yrs any financial help from my husband that mades 6 figures, 5 times my income, I need not tell any of you, how any emotional, physicial, financial or any stress magnifies the physicial, mental, and all the symptoms of all the syndromes.

As if living with a non- believing spouse these 22 yrs, putting up/ shutting up untill I came to believe the only way to get nbetter was to quite taking care of others, and make drastic life style changes.

Not only did my spouse refuse to help me, but he started to stayout all nite.

That and other acts of his, made me decide I’d be better w/o him. I was willing to take the finacial hit, yet not to the extent the courts action and lack of action’s have induced needlessly, especially I’m still waiting after 3 years.

I truly believe it’s all due to the one diagnosis being FMS/CFS.

Instead of decreasing the stress levels, and working towards the changes I planned and hoped would make major improvments,
I”M BEING SUBJECTED TO ADDITIONAL LONG TERM, AND UNJUST treament as if I’m guilty of a Federal crime.

I consulted 3 attornies, they ALL gave me the same support and settlement scenerio. Per their experience and what the law allows. Obviously Except people with FMS/CFS because the courts I filed with, does not believe it exsists and it means JUST CRAZY.

Does a county judge over rule the federal social security system? I think not!

PATHETIC! JUST PATHETIC! I have Fibromyalgia and I find it pathetic how the average person will believe any lie they are told. First of all, Fibromyalgia is NOT neurological. All the quacks out there who say that it is neurological, what they really are saying is that it is all in your head. Neurological is just a fancy name for brushing us off as lazy and unwilling to work. “And ladies are ten times surer to notice it than men”? What a sexist statement! BOTH women and men get Fibromyalgia, but the largest population of Fibromyalgia victims are women. The men who get Fibromyalgia suffer as much as the women and to make that offensive comment just only suggests that women are weaker and inferior to the man. Concerning the subject of depression, Fibromyalgia does NOT cause depression. Depression results from prescriptions, unmanageble pain and lack of support from family, friends, caregivers, doctors, and society. There are MEN and women who have fibromyalgia and never suffer from depression because they have a supportive environment and have found ways to manage the pain without drugs, without mental health, without voodoo nor witchcraft (I am not making this up). I have Fibromyalgia and I do not have to become a “mental health junkie” nor a “prescription junkie” to be free from pain. I do NOT take any of those drugs that are being pushed on us by the pharmaceutical companies. I have seen almost every day since 2004 other Fibromyalgia victims who take “those drugs” and they can’t stay awake, their worse off in that their in “la-la land”, they can not do basic things like bathing, dressing, feeding themselves, even read a storybook to their child (ren), they suffer from severe catastrophic depression, they are addicted to prescription drugs so that they can never come off the drug, or if they do, they have to go to a drug abuse treatment facility. They have to have nurses come in to take care of them, feed them, bathe them, transfer them, toilet them, etc. Others who are not fortunate to have home care, find that they are on their way to a nursing home. Fibromyalgia is the degeneration of the muscles. That is why you find yourself getting weaker, your tired all the time, your muscles ache. When I go to the doctor and he tells me about a “new medicine” for Fibromyalgia pain, I tell the doctor to give me a complete printout of “this new miracle drug”. It is usually thirty pages long about this medicine and one page will be about what the medicine is and the other 29 pages will be about the catastrophic side effects on the user. I always tell the doctor “NO THANKS!” One medicine causes strokes and schizophrenia. Another medicine causes suicide, and it goes on and on and on. I do not let this disease rule my life, because the day I let it take control, that will be the day I start making careless, haphazzard decisions that are based on silly people who have no clue about this disease, and they decide on what is best for me?!! I DON’T THINK SO!

Zeke wrote:

“There is no definitive disease origin or physical causal agent. Any real scientist or doctor will tell you this at least privately, publicly they dare not because of the PC climate out there nor do they wish to offend patients whose suffering is very real, even if their understood cause for it is not.”

Zeke, if you were a REAL doctor, like you are trying to hint you’d know that even IF Fibromyalgia is linked to anxiety & dysphoria (which IS basically “depression”) it would NOT prove that FM is psychosymatic! Since ALMOST ALL autoimmune disorders are ALSO associated with anxiety and/or depression.

Multiple Sclerosis, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Myasthenia Gravis, Chronic Fatigue, Altzheimers, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s), Chronic Neuropathy, Parkinson’s, Multifocal Polyneuropathy, Balo’s Concentric Sclerosis, Progressive Systemic Scleroderma etc.,etc.,etc.,

…are ALL autoimmune disorders often associated with depression and/or anxiety and NOT ONE OF THEM has a known “definitive disease origin or physical causal agent”. In fact, very few autoimmune disorders have a known cause or even a definitive

Plus you only ‘think’ you know pain because you know physical pain. I’m not trying to belittle your accident, or achievements since. However, I experience both, severe physical and nerve pain and you have no idea what pain is until you experience severe nerve pain. I occasionally experience Trigeminal Neuralgia pain so extreme it’s also known as the ‘Suicide Symptom’ for me it comes & goes, but is so much worse than physical pain could ever be doesn’t compare to nerve pain. No pain killer can even begin to take the edge off it…and it makes me literally want to die!

This is the same type of pain FM causes and I was in top shape mentally & physically when it started! I’d just graduated from college and gone whitewater rafting, backpacking & camping for a couple weeks, the week I returned WHAM! neuropathic pain. So sell your CBT theory to someone else somewhere else.

I’ve had fibro for 5 years and I take a great deal of medication to keep it in check.

I hate how the medical community quickly dismisses it. You’re depressed, you’re lazy, etc,etc. I heard all the stories, like it doesn’t exist. I hate to say this but I wish one of these idiot doctors could walk in our shoes. I’m a believer in the fact that fibromyalgia does have a neurological component. To put it in a condensed version, the pain started in the back of my head and went down my spine, then it turned into burning hot pain everywhere no sleep, brainfog etc. I was lucky to find a doctor who tried different meds and for the most part my fibro is in control.
I get flares out of the blue and I’ll have to go home or pop a few neurontin.

This syndrome, disease, or whatever they call it exists and many are debilitated by it. I have a very close friend who is completely disabled from it. I pray for a cure.

Zeke love,
Take a vacation. You may have been run over by a streetcar, but we were not! So don’t try to equate our disease to your streetcar. As a matter of fact your suggestion is insanity. I hope you do not show up on any other website with your insane ideas. Just take a vacation. You also might try ceasing from reading all those “fantasy novels” that seem to be telling you all your bizarre ideas. Not everything you read in a book is true, especially if it was written by some clown (MD, pharmaceutical company, therapist, etc.) who has never experienced this disease and can’t even tell you what causes it, but at the same time, they are the professionals? What a laugh. Enjoy your vacation Zeke, I know I will.

Hello. This is kind of an “unconventional” question , but have other visitors asked you how get the menu bar to look like you’ve got it? I also have a blog and am really looking to alter around the theme, however am scared to death to mess with it for fear of the search engines punishing me. I am very new to all of this …so i am just not positive exactly how to try to to it all yet. I’ll just keep working on it one day at a time Thanks for any help you can offer here