Fibromyalgia affects millions of people in the United States, but is an invisible condition. Only through education and understanding will we begin to breakthrough the the stigma that follows those who live daily with fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is not a disease, but a chronic condition that causes a myriad of symptoms. Fibromyalgia can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender or heritage. The most common and widespread symptom of FMS is pain. The pain is not caused by any inflammation but it is real. The body of someone with fibromyalgia is more sensitive to sensations that that of someone without the condition. It occurs over the entire body to varying degrees. Approximately 90% people with fibromyalgia also experience fatigue. It is believed this is caused due to difficulty for someone with FMS to reach and maintain the restorative sleep cycles. Someone with fibromyalgia may wake up feeling as if they have been exercising all night or that they have been "hit by a mac truck."
Other symptoms that are common with fibromyalgia are headaches (including migraines), sensitivity to sound, light, smells, and touch, dizziness, confusion, impaired memory and concentration, muscle spasms and cramps, muscle stiffness, numbness in a variety of locations on the body, restless legs and arms, a feeling of weakness or poor stamina, Irritable Bowl Syndrome, nausea, crampy abdominal pain that is intense and unpredictable, bladder pain, crawling skin feelings, itching, Raynaud's phenomena, eye irritation including increased or decreased tear production, vertigo, and temporomandibular joint pain. These symptoms may come and go, may never occur in some people with the condition, or may be continual.
There is no known cause for fibromyalgia. It mimics the other conditions including lyme disease, lupus, hypothyroidism, Parkinson's disease, Myasthenia gravis, rheumatoid arthritis, Reiter's syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and others. Depression, anxiety and other psychological conditions often present with fibromyalgia as well.
There is no single treatment that will work for every person with fibromyalgia and a treatment that once worked my stop working. Each person with fibromyalgia not only experiences a different set of symptoms, but also must be treated individually to determine the best treatment. Common treatments include stress reduction, medication, education, and regular exercise. A change in environmental stimuli may assist in decreasing symptoms as well.
Fibromyalgia syndrome exists. The person is not lazy, not a hypochondriac, not faking it. A person with fibromyalgia is dealing with daily hurdles just to make it through the day. With support and caring from people around them as well as an individualized treatment plan, a person living with fibromyalgia doesn't have to feel alone.
