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.  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 it's place, gave you Brain Fog. I can make you tremble internally or make you feel cold
or hot when everyone else feels normal.  Oh, yea, 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 from you 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 Dr. how debilitating life is EVERY day. Your family, friends and co-workers 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 them  will say things like "Oh, you are just having a bad day" or  "Well, remember, you can't do all the things you used to do 10 YEARS ago",  Some will just start talking behind your back, while you  slowly feel that you are losing your dignity 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..... Except the minority of us, who like me, have support  from their husband and their immediate family.

Terri used to have a website that I linked this page
back to, but the link is broken now,
I thank her for letting me use this as an introduction to my own Fibromyalgia web site.....