Are my fibromyalgia symptoms all in my head?

Fibromyalgia symptoms are not all in your head. People with fibromyalgia have widespread chronic muscle pain in specific places on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs. The latest thinking is that some people are born with a genetic susceptibility to experience pain signals too intensely, but it takes a specific incident to trigger full-blown fibromyalgia. That may be a stressful or traumatic event, a repetitive injury, an illness, or certain diseases. If you have fibromyalgia, the symptoms are real.

Fibromyalgia isn't always easy to diagnose because many doctors aren't all that familiar with the condition. For years, people who suffered from fibromyalgia were told that the symptoms they were experiencing were all in their heads, but today we know that isn't true. We have a lot to learn about fibromyalgia, but we do know that it is a real condition and that it can be treated. With guidelines provided by the American College of Rheumatology, the condition has become much easier to diagnose. If you have pain consistent with fibromyalgia, talk to your doctor about getting an accurate diagnosis.

In a manner of speaking fibromyalgia is all in our head, but not in the way some people would have us believe.

There is mounting evidence that FM is due to a dysfunction of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in the brain, which helps explain immune problems, particularly with the thyroid and autonomic effects. (You can find newer research at https://thesethree.com/FM_Research.html

More proof that fibromyalgia is not a mental health disorder is the presence of common comorbid conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus, Sjögren’s, Raynaud’s, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, hypothyroidism, bruxism, disordered sleep, interstitial cystitis, myofascial pain syndrome, insulin resistance, postural orthostatic tachycardia, TMD, neurally mediated hypotension, restless leg syndrome, ankylosing spondylitis or many of the overlapping conditions which have a centralization or  myofascial component. 

All blogs, posts and answers are based on the work in Integrative Therapies for Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Myofascial Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Celeste Cooper, RN, and Jeff Miller, PhD. 2010, Vermont: Healing Arts press and are not meant to replace medical advice. http://www.thesethree.com

Author of Chapter Five, Living with and Coping Effectively Through Fibromyalgia: Detecting Barriers, Understanding the Clues, in Fibromyalgia Insider Secrets: 10 Top Experts, 2nd Ed. Ebook complied by Deirdre Rawlings, ND, PhD
http://www.fibromyalgiainsidersecrets.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=121_0_1_59