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I have gone to the doctor for indefinable pain a few times. It was pain for which I could neither find adequate words nor an explanation. I couldn’t even narrow down the location of the pain to anything smaller than a very large region of my body. It seemed to have no source or trigger. My physician found no swelling or reason for tenderness. He found no obstruction or growth of any kind. Through tears of pain, I said, “I’m telling you this hurts. Really bad. Are you saying it’s all in my head?” His answer stung at first, but then I realized his point: “Of course it’s in your head. All pain is in the head… but that doesn’t mean it’s not real.” He was referring to our biology wherein all pain is processed in the brain.
Is She/He Making it Up?
“You don’t look sick. There’s nothing wrong with you.” Everyone who has ever suffered from chronic pain like what comes with fibromyalgia has heard these words. Isn’t is strange? The philosophy and government of the West was established on faith. But our own family members and closest friends doubt whether we are actually suffering simply because they don’t see a cast, cane, limp, or tumor. Even the doctors struggled with this one. It has taken years for the mainstream medical community to accept fibromyalgia as an actual problem with real symptoms. This may have something to do with how many women have been struck with fibromyalgia. What women deal with has been chronically dismissed for eons. But the Mayo Clinic reports that more and more men are being diagnosed with fibromyalgia now that the criteria have ceased focusing on the number of tender points a patient has.
Affirmation
So, is fibromyalgia real? Maybe it just took time, maybe we needed more men on board, or maybe new research needed to be brought to light. Whatever the reason, the tide is definitely shifting when it comes to the medical community’s understanding of fibromyalgia. Psychology Today reports: “…the war between doubters and advocates has waned. The consensus is that these illnesses are truly mind-body diseases, in which biological and psychological causes and dysfunctions are inseparably intertwined. The mind seems to play a key role in kick-starting and perpetuating illness—but it’s not that sufferers are simply malingerers. Their bodies are sick, and their reaction to the illness often makes it worse.”
Dr. James F. Jones with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control adds that “anybody who has a chronic illness has alterations in biological and psychological mechanisms. You really can’t separate the brain and the body, because psychology is biology—everything that takes place in the brain is chemical or electrical. You can’t have the one without the other.”
As it turns out, the more research done in the area of fibromyalgia, the more proof emerges that something very tangible is happening. Go figure. The Mayo Clinic, for example, goes on to report that the brain and spinal cord of fibro patients processes pain signals differently than non-fibro patients. This results in stronger reactions to touch and pressure, as well as a much higher sensitivity to pain. Thus, fibromyalgia is both a neurochemical and physiological problem.
Ok, It’s Real. Now What?
If you know someone who is suffering from fibromyalgia, do not dismiss their pain simply because you see no physical proof that there is a problem. You don’t dismiss migraines or heart disease do you? You surely do not dismiss cancer that leaves no outward trace of a problem. Then why would you dismiss fibromyalgia? It carries a list of symptoms that are absurdly debilitating, including chronic pain and fatigue, depression and anxiety, foggy thinking and so much more. You can’t touch a single one of those ailments, but you can definitely see a fibro patient wincing, hear them crying out, or notice their regular absence. They desperately need you to acknowledge the reality of what they live with every single day. Your acknowledgement can contribute to their healing, if not permanently, then often temporarily. Fibromyalgia patients need affirmation, support, and love rather than criticism because they missed another dinner or don’t even look like they are hurting. Fibromyalgia is real. Very real and often misunderstood.
If you have someone in your life who has been particularly affirming and supportive of you while you deal with your fibromyalgia symptoms, please share it with us.
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