fibromyalgia

[Mrs OwenK]

Hi all, have no search function on my mobile (no delete key, enter or letter that comes after p! This might be fun!) so apologies if this has already been spoken about. I have been diagnosed for the last 3 years and over the last few weeks\month I have found that approx, once a week I have an awful day and can barely stand! Not very pleasant or practical! Due to a million other things I don't exercise due to the pain as the only thing I can do is swim and I won't swim due to being a bit overweight and having to drag 2 kids along! I'm after any more advise really as all specialists I've spoken with say its something I have to self mamage and clearly I'm not doing very well at that! Are there any other sufferers out here that have found something that works for them? Thanks in advance! (Modds feel free to sort this out so its leigable!)

[knk]

There is a school of thought that refutes this as a diagnosis. I think it is reasonable to think of it as a dysfunction of pain perception. It tends to be strongly linked with depression and anxiety and those patients who acknoledge and treat their psyche tend to do well.
Those who insist it is a physical diagnosis tend to do very badly.
Like "ME" the strongest prognostic indicator is being part of a patient pressure group; members of these tend to do very badly.
Best treatment; CBT (try livinglifetothefull.com), graduated exercise, and acceptance.

[TheD]

I was told I had this a few months ago. To be fair I did have the symptoms after reading about it but I have never been sure about it. It does have a big following these days apparently and many believe it is an actual problem. I keep active, eat well, don't join like minded people etc but I am getting worse and I am going back to the doc today. I haven't a clue what it is but whatever it is it is real. In the mind maybe but so much pain suggests different.

[Slyjoe]

knk said:

Like "ME" the strongest prognostic indicator is being part of a patient pressure group; members of these tend to do very badly.
Best treatment; CBT (try livinglifetothefull.com), graduated exercise, and acceptance.

This is very true - CBT will help. It does not make the pain any less real, however it may teach you coping strategies.

[Oakey]

TheD said:

I was told I had this a few months ago. To be fair I did have the symptoms after reading about it but I have never been sure about it. It does have a big following these days apparently and many believe it is an actual problem. I keep active, eat well, don't join like minded people etc but I am getting worse and I am going back to the doc today. I haven't a clue what it is but whatever it is it is real. In the mind maybe but so much pain suggests different.

Which symptoms? Isn't that part of the problem? that there are so many that 'Fibromyalgia' is a bit of a catch all.

It would be easy to pick a number of symptoms and come to the conclusion this is what you have.

[Mrs OwenK]

Thanks for the replies, I understand how people differ on the mental/physical side of things and I probably am stuck (opinions wise) right in the middle!

I have had depression for longer than the Fibro and luckily for me the 2 don't seem to go together, i.e I don't have a bad day depression wise and then get a bout of fibro. My fibro 'attacks' seem very random! I know they get worse when I get stressed but as I'm not particularly stressed at the moment am not sure why they are happening more frequently.

I've had CBT, counselling, physio, and I've been on anti-deps for ages. Unfortunately can't say anything has helped.

I have reynaulds as well and was apparently high risk for developing rheumatiod arthritis (sorry about the speeeling) as well as having a bad accident when a teenager and having the worst SPD seenn in 2 hospitals ^_^ hence that I can't excersise very much.


It seems odd to me that I can have had random episodes for the last 3 years but recently they've been much shorter (thank god!) but more frequent!