Explaining fibromyalgia to friends and family

I was diagnosed with fibro last year and found I was having a hard time explaining it and my symptoms to family and friends. I finally came up with a kind of "system" that I use now whenever I feel the need to explain it to someone. It really helps me and keeps me from spewing out random facts and symptoms. If you want to try it, you can read about it here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4879475_explain-fibromyalgia.html

Thanks for the greast resource! It is very difficult to explain just how painful this is and how many other random symptoms we have.

You're very welcome. I know for me it seems like I have a new "random" symptom every week! Who would have thought there could be so many symptoms for one disorder!

Here is how I explain it to folks:
Chemically it is a lot like the oppisate of Parkinsons Disease. IN Parkinsons the body fails to make enough high nerve growth cells, resulting in impaired function. With fibro, the body makes too many of these high nerve growth cells, which turn into pain recievers. There are spinal tap tests that can be done to confirm the condition, and although it is chronic, it is does not progressively deteriorate or lead to death.

(this also shuts up all the folks who think it's in our heads!)

I've learned to ignore the people who think it's all in our heads. For all those people who doubt, there are millions of us who know!

Working With Fibro Blog