Hi. . .My Name is Fibromyalgia, and I'm an Invisible Chronic Illness.
I am now velcroed to you for life. Others around you can't see me or hear me, but YOUR body feels me. I can attack you anywhere and anyhow I please. I can cause severe pain or, if I'm in a good mood, I can just cause you to ache all over. Remember when you and Energy ran around together and had fun? I took Energy from you, and gave you Exhaustion. Try to have fun now! I also took Good Sleep from you and, in its place, gave you Brain Fog. I can make you tremble internally or make you feel cold or hot when everyone else feels normal. Oh, yeah, I can make you feel anxious or depressed, too. If you have something planned, or are looking forward to a great day, I can take that away, too. You didn't ask for me. I chose you for various reasons: That virus you had that you never recovered from, or that car accident, or maybe it was the years of abuse and trauma. Well, anyway, I'm here to stay! I hear you're going to see a doctor who can “get rid” of me. I'm rolling on the floor, laughing. Just try. You will have to go to many, many doctors until you find one who even BELIEVES I EXIST.
You will be put on
pain pills, sleeping pi
lls, energy pills, told you are suffering from anxiety or depression, given a TENs unit, get massaged, told if you just sleep and exercise more I will go away, told to think positive, poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL, laughed at when you tell the doctor I am debilitating. Your family, friends and coworkers will all listen to you until they just get tired of hearing about how I make you feel, and that I'm a real disease. Some of them will say things like “Oh, you are just having a bad day” or “Well, remember, you can't do the things you use to do 20 YEARS ago,” not hearing that you said 20 DAYS ago. Some will just start talking behind your back, while you slowly feel that you are losing your dignity trying to make them understand, especially when you are in the middle of a conversation with a “Normal” person, and can't remember what you were going to say next!
Eventually, most of them will be like all the doctors who say “It's All In Your Head.”
In closing, (I was hoping that I kept this part a secret), but I guess you already found out. . .
The ONLY place you will get any support and understanding in dealing with me is with Other People With Fibromyalgia.