I received this article from
a friend and thought it was EXCELLENT--and how true it was of me before I
began finding relief for my FMS. - Dominie
MY NAME IS
FIBROMYALGIA
by Terri Been
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 can help you
effectively. You will be put on pain pills,
sleeping pills, energy pills,
told you are suffering from anxiety or depression,
given a TENs unit, get
massaged, told if you just sleep and exercise properly I
will go away, told
to think positively, poked, prodded, and MOST OF ALL, not
taken as seriously
as you feel when you cry to the doctor how debilitating life
is every
day.
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 debilitating
disease. Some of they 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!
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.
100 Tips for Coping with
Fibromyalgia & Insomnia
DOMINIE'S FIBROMYALGIA & CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME
HOMEPAGE