Fibromyalgia is the Greatest Fake Illness
Is fibromyalgia is a real medical disease or illness? There are many who classify fibromyalgia as nothing more than a collection of complaints. The illness has been labeled as hypochondriacal and neurotic. Suffers are told nothing is wrong with them, “It’s all in their head.”
As someone who has been diagnosed and started showing signs at a very young age, I have heard this many times myself. I stumbled upon tons of articles of such critics; they view fibromyalgia as a “Hypochondial imagined sickness.” They often have this piece of advice for the healthy majority, “The next time you meet someone and are told, with a gleeful voice and joyous expression, they have been “diagnosed” with fibromyalgia, smile, turn around, and run the other way because a pity party is about to start and you are the invited sucker selected for shoveling the sympathy.” This makes for quite a statement and has no basis of truth from my perspective.
Allow me to step back a second and explain to those who have never even heard of the illness, precisely what fibromyalgia is. This illness is defined by The National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association as, “A common and complex chronic pain disorder that causes widespread pain and tenderness to touch that may occur body-wide or migrate over the body.” Fibro affects people physically, mentally, and socially. Over 200 symptoms are associated with fibromyalgia including extreme fatigue, sensitivity to touch, light and sound, arthritis, stiffness, restless leg syndrome, anxiety, depression, vision problems, dizziness, and cognitive difficulties often referred to as “fibro fog.” This list could continue and fill your screen for quite a while.
There is no cure or any 100% treatment for the illness, just medications and options to help manage symptoms. Fibromyalgia is entirely life-altering, and that is the first thing a sufferer learns and is often times the hardest part to accept. It takes many years to come to terms with this diagnosis, accept having fibromyalgia, and allow for healthy treatment to counteract the symptoms. There is a huge burden placed on the shoulders of fibro patients. Having pain that will not go away results in severe depression, marital discord, vocational difficulties, chemical dependency, social withdraw, sleep disorders, increasing fatigue, and a radical alteration in personality. The realization that this problem will be lifelong is unsettling and generates emotions and behaviors that aren’t healthy in coping with chronic pain. We all go through this and in doing so, we become our own worst enemies. I am currently in the acceptance stage myself.
This illness occurs in people of all ages, and yes can affect children too. To make a diagnosis, healthcare providers rely on patients symptoms both current and past that have lasted longer than three months, blood work, and a physical examination called the eleven point test. For this exam, they look for pain in both sides of the body and pain above and below the waist. These points are over the neck, back, chest, elbows, hips, butt, and knees. When light pressure is applied to these points, a fibro patient will flinch or pull back due to the pain.
A 42 question symptom questionnaire is frequently used as well. Based on the number of symptoms checked off coupled along with answers to other patient diagnostic questions. A mathematical formula is used to determine an accurate diagnosis. These are the two clinical fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria made available to healthcare providers to make an accurate diagnosis created by The American College of Rheumatology. These tools were first introduced in the year 1990. Healthcare professionals are now increasingly exposed to educational programs that teach them how to use both of the ACR diagnostic criteria.
Treatment can include pain management, sleep evaluation, mental health support, therapeutic massage, release therapy, water therapy, light aerobics, yoga, cognitive therapy, and a balanced nutrition plan. Researchers and medical professionals have studied the illness for over 100 years involving a countless number of fibromyalgia patients. An illness “all in your head” would not have countless hours of research, case studies, or even be given a name.
According to critics, “Patients demand to label their illness, even if one doesn’t exist, for their imagined sickness.” they claim it is not enough today to be sick, “We all want to feel special.” Having no validation for your debilitating pain and suffering takes a significant toll on the human psyche. Also, fibromyalgia has existed for centuries. We know this from Sir William Gowers, who in 1904 gave a lecture to physicians at the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic in London, England. During this lecture, Dr. Gowers described “fibrositis” for the first time. Fibrositis proved inflammation was present, but the kind of inflammation found in arthritic disease is not present. After continued research, the “itis” was dropped, and fibromyalgia adopted it’s new, and current name, along with a better understanding of the illness.
Over the years, many important research discoveries have started to clarify the enigma of chronic pain, according to Robert M. Bennet MD, FRCP Professor of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University. On the other hand, critics still claim we desire to “Suck the healthy into the imagined illness.” In truth, cultural attitudes and stigmatizations of people with chronic pain issues cause sufferers to withdraw from family, friends, and just people in general. We are left feeling alone and isolated. This hate affects approximately 10 million Americans, 4% of the country, of people trying to find a way to live with fibromyalgia. To provide a better visual, the number of people living with fibromyalgia is comparable to the number of people in the United States with cancer.
Still, many believe we suffer from nothing more than hypochondria and that, “fibromyalgia is only a label created to medicate the masses.” critics are quoted as saying, “Fibromyalgia is a convenient cover for the weak and encourages pity from the unfairly healthy and medical community.” Researchers at the Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago including Bruce S. Gillis, MD, MPH, “Found fibro patients are often considered to be hyper/overactive responders, but they identified the opposite. These patients had a depressed immune system, therefore were more susceptible. In other words, not hyperactive at all, especially when compared to“healthy” participants.
I can tell you as someone suffering from fibromyalgia, this has honestly hurt my heart, and the hearts of the 10 million-plus trying to find a way to cope with this illness. If all I experience is truly made up and only in my head, why would I give up family, friends, fun, my ability to think, and all my hobbies that made life worth living? Instead, to spend all day in debilitating pain praying down to the seconds until it is finally 7:30 pm. This is the time when I can take a pill reminder full of pills so I can actually get some sleep allowing for a small break from the pain, depression, and constant suicidal thoughts.
Allow me to explain daily life; I am forced to lay in bed a good portion of the day from the pain, with feet my elevated because if they are not my chronic foot pain and chronic plantar fasciitis will make me wish for death. I get to watch everyone else go on with their fulfilling lives while I lay in bed and take multiple prescriptions throughout the day. My sensitivity to sound is blaring. My sensitivity to light is blinding. My sensitivity to touch is torture. My inability to use my hands for anything, my feet to walk, or my mind to hold a conversation is depressing and embarrassing. I need help to achieve the most basic task, like getting dressed or cutting up my food.
I spend hundreds of dollars on monthly doctor bills because that is how often I have to go in to see my doctors in the same month. Sitting in the stiff and uncomfortable wheelchair, waiting for hours to see each doctor increases my daily pain level from an eight to a maxed out ten. A ten on the pain scale being I want to be hospitalized and will go to drastic measures for the pain to stop. I am also regularly reminded just how fat and lazy I am.
The prescriptions I take are very costly, while only working very little, and amount to twice of that a 90-year-old man would take. My life passes me by. I can’t go out with friends or family instead I get to sit alone missing all the things that make life enjoyable and fun. I truly loved my job as a chef, and I rose up the ladder quickly because I was once that good at what I did. Work gave me a daily purpose, and I loved what I used to do. My last employer was Centura Health, I worked at Penrose Hospital, and I can honestly say I made a difference in peoples lives. I have to accept I will never step foot in another commercial kitchen. Currently, I don’t have the ability to work at all. I no longer have anything to show for my hard work and dedication, short of my car.
The question I pose is this, why would I give up so much to fake an illness? I am not looking for your pity; in fact, I want to be left alone. I do not look for sympathy and wouldn’t accept it if you tried. What I truly want is to wake up in the world of such critics, and have this indeed be all in my head, and get my life back. I want to cook, read, think clearly, not stutter or forget words, and write clearly once again because that has always been my passion. Instead, I am trapped in my own personal hell, with no outlook of a release.
Fibromyalgia is the greatest fake disease.
Check the sources for yourself.
The National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association. “What Is Fibromyalgia?” https://www.fmcpaware.org/, www.fmcpaware.org/fibromyalgia/about-fm.html.
The National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association.”FM: A Real Medical Disease.” FMCP Aware, www.fmcpaware.org/ FM-a-Real-Medical-Disease.html.
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