If you don't have fibromyalgia and you are trying to understand it, good for you read on. There are a myriad of symptoms that don't seem to connect to one another and they fluctuate. That in and of itself is difficult to understand. It isn't in the sufferers head. It is very real and fully physical.
Because sometimes people need to see it more than once.
Fibromyalgia, I learned to spell it when I was finally diagnosed in the seventies. I made my doctor write it down then I tried to find out exactly what it was. Unlike other illnesses it didn't have an informational pamphlet. It made me a little nuts because there wasn't a reliable information. All the doctor really said was it would explain my pain, tender points and fatigue. There is way more to it that that, I can assure you.
Fatigue. It sounds like a good eight hours would totally fix that. But it isn't that simple. Replace fatigue with exhaustion. Like the kind you get with a bad case of the flu or the kind of exhaustion you get after staying up all night with a newborn for months at a time. Only when you have fibro you just don't get to rest you don't get to sleep like when you get the flu or when the baby sleeps so can you. Because with fibro you get tender points that make getting comfortable difficult if not impossible. You also get a myriad of sleep disorders.
Pain. Everyone gets it right? Well with fibro your cells can send five times the pain signals. The cells might actually be sending pressure or itch signals but fribro interferes sends a faulty reading of pain instead of pressure or itch. All of a sudden your brain is filled with overloaded with sensations of intense actual pain. This pain is 'unexplained' pain, meaning there is really no origin, rhyme nor reason to when it will strike, where or for how long. IT isn't the kind of pain you can pin point, like smash your finger feel pain. More like how a little bump on the funny bone can send sharp pain through your whole arm. Imagine the doctor says, "You might feel a little pressure." Your cells send the information to your brain which now feels feels pain. Not the most fun party trick, that's for sure. In some cases you can push through the pain but more often than not you have to pay for it by adding more pain usually lasting much longer than seems fair. Fibro isn't fair.
The brain amplification isn't just for pain. It can intensify other sensations like light, noise, or odor. This overload of pain and amplified sound, light or smells can lead to confusion, anxiety, fear or panic attacks. Especially since logically you know your body is playing tricks on you but you can't control it. Like having somebody turn up the volume and then hide the remote.
Stress. Really how could you not have added stress knowing your body can turn on itself at any moment? It is like living handcuffed to a traitor.You don't want it but there is no key to set you free. We all know that stress can manifest in physical symptoms. Normal people feel a little stress and the body sends adrenaline and other hormones to help your body deal with it. People with fibro don't have enough of those hormones and that triggers symptoms. Anything that can throw off your hormones can trigger a fibro attack. (Yes, I said attack because that is exactly how it feels, like your body is under attack!) Worse is there are a ton of things that can bring on stress like deadlines, conflict, too much to do, illness, insomnia (sigh), injury or even not eating right. Including overeating, skipping meals, eating the wrong foods etc. No matter what the source of stress is the result is usually going to be pain.
Hopefully this helped you understand what the sufferer is going through but there is actually a little more to it. Fibromyalgia is always there. It is never cured. There is no magic pill, treatment or anything that can force it to go away. The symptoms can be so mild you don't see them. They don't interfere with the sufferers daily life then WHAM! Right out of left field you they are down for the count. I mean there are seemingly healthy people walking around with fibro. They work hard to lessen stress, eat right, exercise, and yet they can't do today what they did yesterday. Or they can do today what they couldn't do yesterday. This may cause some confusion for the people around them, especially for the people who rely on them. Think of fibro like you would blood pressure there are things we know will make it go up or down but then for reasons unknown their blood pressure rises or drops throughout the day or week or month or year. (I know a friend who has trouble once a month, I can imagine how difficult it will be when she hits menopause, sigh.)
There is pretty good research other here now that help those with fibromyalgia identify triggers and symptoms. The problem is not everyone with fibromyalgia has the exact same symptoms or the exact same triggers do so what works for some is likely not going to work for everyone. But we try. We may very well fail but then we try again.
There are people who know me who never knew or would never have guessed I have fibromyalgia. I don't announce it, Hello nice to meet you, I have fibromyalgia. I didn't tell anyone when I first discovered it because not many knew what it was. I don't normally tell anyone today because there are people who deny it exists but they have no clue. There is also that feeling of pity I don't really want or need. It does help to have support so every time I hear someone has it I do what I can to be supportive in any way I can, you should too.
The condensed version is fibromyalgia involves the nervous system and the brain. In other words it involves the every part of the body. Ask yourself what part of your body does not involve nerves or the brain? None right? Sigh. Fibromyalgia messes with everything, including the people around you. In most cases doctors treat the symptoms or the patient may self medicate. (I do not recommend or condone the self medication route... nothing but trouble there.) The symptoms and triggers vary from person to person but are very real. It isn't psychological, laziness, or hypochondria. It isn't a reason to whine and complain, although for some they may use it as such. (Most of us suffer in silence.) Fibromyalgia can take a productive, educated, ambitious person and turn them into what appears to be the opposite of everything you know about them.
Part of the information here originated from my own experience but I got help explaining from this article: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/od/whatisfibromyalgia/a/understandfibro.htm
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