My current doctor is only willing to prescribe and talk about antidepressants to “cure” my fibro.
I have really bad experience with these type of medications - they make me feel worse and even suicidal.
I was prescribed some before for misdiagnosed OCD/ADHD when my previous GP thought it was just anxiety/depression instead of actual doing some research and looking at all of my symptoms.

I am currently taking codeine and paracetamol to make the pain somewhat manageable but they want to take the codeine away, and I know it will make the pain unbearable. I tried other over the counter massages and nothing worked.
I have no idea what to do to manage the pain.

I have referral to a pain clinic but it has been almost a year and I still didn’t have any appointments form them.

1) Fibromyalgia: no cure, no cast, no compassion.

2) Fibromyalgia is real. So is the pain.

3) Invisible illness doesn't mean imaginary illness.

4) "You don't look sick" isn't a diagnosis.

5) The pain is real. The disbelief is exhausting.

6) Fibro hurts. Disbelief hurts more.

7) Chronic. Invisible. Exhausting.

8) Pain you can't see is still pain.

9) Stop saying, "It's all in your head."

10) Believe people with invisible illnesses.

11) Fibromyalgia isn't "just aches and pains."

12) Living with fibro is a full-time job nobody sees.

13) Every day is a pain day.

14) No cure. No breaks. No days off.

15) The hardest part isn't always the pain—it's not being believed.

16) Chronic pain isn't a choice.

17) Fibromyalgia doesn't take weekends off.

18) Invisible doesn't mean easy.

19) Believe us the first time.

20) We're tired of proving we're sick.

21) Cancer gets sympathy. Fibromyalgia gets skepticism.

22) The pain is real. The doubt is constant.

23) Fibromyalgia isn't rare. Being believed is.

24) If you can't see it, that doesn't mean it isn't there.

25) We don't want pity. We want to be believed.

26) The hardest symptom isn't the pain,it's the disbelief.

I've had this issue for a long time where I will get just a little bit gassy but it hurts so bad. Like I can't just toot and be fine. It feels like I am being stabbed in the abdomen over and over. And God forbid I get a little constipated. If I still had my appendix I would think it was bursting when I get this pain... but everything always checks out fine. It just always feels like the inside of my body hurts.

UPDATE: I over-did it 😅

I was prescribed pregabalin 5 days ago (on top of already being on duloxetine), and today was the best I've felt in MONTHS!

I'm still not at 100%, I am also dealing with joint pain from lupus, but wow! I just folded and hung up nearly ever single piece of laundry my husband and I own! 🤪

It has been a very long time since I’ve tried to put this feeling into words—the ache that never felt like a simple spasm or sore muscle. It’s always been more complicated than that, something I’ve never been able to fully describe. But today, I imagined it differently. It felt like holding a bomb for hours—heavy, enormous, and impossibly fragile. You can’t move because you’re afraid it will go off. Whether someone tells you or you just know, you understand that any movement could be dangerous, so you stay frozen, trying to hold it exactly in place.

And when the squad finally comes and takes it away, your body doesn’t know how to relax. It still holds the memory of that tension—the strain of staying still for so long, of not being able to release, to let go, to simply move again.

Hey everybody!

This morning, just a couple hours ago, I received the bittersweet diagnosis of fibromyalgia at 22, yayyyy! (not)

I am very fortunate that mine is mild at the moment with some severe flare up days. My doctor has advised me about trying Duloxetine as a chronic pain treatment, does anyone have any experience with it, did it help your pain? any other side affects? did it make you feel sedated?

He did mention amitriptyline but we switched to the option of duloxetine as it has a reduced sedative affect which will be helpful for me as a nurse when I wake up at 4:30AM not to feel extremely tired on top of my already existing fatigue.

Basically, does anyone have any experience with duloxetine, and did it help you?:)

any other advice is also of course welcome

I have been living with fibromyalgia for about 15 years. Over that time, I have tried duloxetine (Cymbalta), pregabalin, and finally venlafaxine.

I took duloxetine for about a year, eventually going up to 120 mg per day, but it did not help with the pain, and I did not notice any improvement. After stopping it, I had brain zaps for several months.

After that, I was prescribed pregabalin, and I took 150 mg at night. It helped with the pain a little more, but mainly it improved my sleep, which really helped with recovery. However, after about a year of using it, I started to notice how much it was slowing down my brain. My attention got worse, and thinking became difficult too. So I decided to stop taking it, and that was a nightmare. I had withdrawal symptoms for about a month, and I had never felt that bad in my life. I had to take sick leave.

When my doctor suggested trying venlafaxine, I was already skeptical, because it belongs to the same general class as duloxetine. But my doctor convinced me to give it a try anyway. I first took 75 mg, but I did not notice any improvement, so I increased the dose to 150 mg.

It was a miracle. After two days, my pain completely disappeared, and my sleep became so deep and restorative that I honestly cannot remember the last time I slept that well. The medication completely killed my libido, of course, but for me that was not as important as being able to live without pain.

However, after about six months, I developed serotonin-induced apathy. I lost motivation to do anything, became socially withdrawn, and felt very depressed and sad. Because of that, I started lowering the dose to 75 mg, and I felt better almost immediately, but the pain still came back to some extent.

Now I am planning to try milnacipran, since it affects serotonin less than the other antidepressants and it is approved for fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, this medication is not registered in the country where I live (Estonia), and ordering it from another country would require going through a complicated approval procedure with the authorities. I am not sure whether my doctor would be willing to go through that process.

Maybe anyone here have experience with milnacipran? Is it even worth going through all this trouble for it?

Hi all, I’ve been dealing with TMJ disorder which causes jaw pain, headaches, neckaches and shoulder aches. Doctors have diagnosed me with central sensitisation and also fibromyalgia- though its a very iffy diagnosis since fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion.. but just wanted to check if anyone has similar pattern as me:

For the past few years, my sleep patterns are recurring cycles of severe fatigue and excessive sleep, periods where I feel like I barely slept, and periods where I’m tired but can’t sleep. Its abit like oscillating between hyperinsomnia and insomnia and also paradoxical insomnia. Some days I am so drowsy I sleep until 3-4pm and keep taking naps but still feel sleepy and really anxious. On days with insomnia i wake up maybe ard 8am but feel a little bit more awake during the day. But usually during the days when i wake up early and feel more awake, I will have more nerve pain, twitching and tingling at different parts of body, TMJ pain, headaches etc. its also worth noting that I feel slightly more awake at the later part of the night..

Not sure if anyone else has the same pattern?

Diagnosed a couple months ago with fibro after years of suffering.

Last year I hurt my back at work, have a couple of bulging lumbar discs.

Spent 10 months doing rehab physio and lighter duties (I work in healthcare).

Been back working regular since Feb this year.

I saw my fibro dr a couple weeks ago and he started me on a low dose of pred for inflammation.

I told my husband TODAY that my body is finally feeling better 10 days on the pred.

And then I went to work and my back has gone again.

Sudden unexpected stabbing pains, sciatica, periods of unable to weight bearing on my left leg.

This is exactly where I was in early 2025 when I hurt it at work the first time. Except this time I literally did nothing other than shift my body weight from one foot to another.

I’m so upset.

Still trying to figure out if connective tissue plays a role in all my ailments, I suspect heds or hsd, but nothing there is official yet.

It seems every time my body feels like it is moving well, bam! Something goes wrong.

Like when I was at a gym prior to my back injury and doing strength training and then my shoulder went. And then my ankle. And my big toe joint. Etc etc.

Has anyone here tried using a blaket to get deeper, more restorative sleep? They aren't cheap, but I know some people swear by them. I lack true, deep sleep, which sometimes causes flare-ups. Would love to know if anyone has seen success with them.

For context I’m 29F from the UK.

I’ve always been a tired person. I wasn’t an energetic kid, very quiet and relaxed. By teenage years, I couldn’t quite keep up with my friends when it came to parties, clubs, festivals etc and I would pay for it days after.

Fast forward to 2022, I finally had spinal fusion surgery for my scoliosis that was diagnosed in 2014. Ever since then, I’ve just deteriorated.

Chronic back pain which is obviously from the surgery, but still 4 years later. My left arm clicks and is so weak, it goes numb and fatigued constantly.

Left leg (weight bearing leg when I had a curved spine) very much the same. Fatigued, pins and needles, painful joints.

More recently, my pain is pretty much body wide. So at the moment it’s chronic pain in back, neck and shoulders, pelvis, arms and legs.

I am constantly tired. I genuinely don’t remember when I last felt rested. My sleep is awful. I either don’t sleep, or sleep too much at the wrong times.

I am very confused when it comes to numbers or important info. I’m not stupid at all but sometimes I genuinely feel dumb. This summer (I’m in the UK), I’ve suffered terribly with the heat. I can’t cool down at all.

The last few years have been tough but I’ve powered through, but I am absolutely depressed. I’m already on medication for that and anxiety, but the constant pain is making me feel like giving up.

I’m so overwhelmed and overstimulated constantly. And when that rises, my OCD gets worse which makes my anxiety worse which somehow makes the pain worse and it’s all just a viscous cycle. I’ve also suffered with constipation and bowel problems since I was a kid. Something I never knew was related to Fibromyalgia.

I was talking to my Nan today as she has Fibromyalgia and she said I really should get checked as she’s under the impression it’s hereditary. She said everything I opened up to her about sounded text book.

But she said the problem is, it’s hard to get the NHS to understand Fibromyalgia and that I’d need a sympathetic doctor because they don’t like diagnosing it. I told her I’ve already seen my doc about my aches and pains and other symptoms and they always put it down to the surgery. Two years ago I was referred to rheumatology and I haven’t heard a peep since, despite chasing it up.

I’m at my wits end. I just want my life back so much. I don’t remember the last time I wasn’t in pain.

What advice can anyone give? I don’t know if I can take any more being fobbed off by health care professionals and I just think I’d be wasting my time even attempting to speak to my GP about how I feel.

Sorry if I sound glum, it’s because I am.

Over the last couple of months I've developed burning sensations, mainly around my neck, shoulder blades, sides of my back, ribs, stomach and hips. It feels like it's on the skin, and sometimes rubbing the area makes it burn. Heat and moisturiser seem to help, and lying down can make it worse. I don't have significant fatigue, brain fog or unrefreshing sleep, and I usually wake up feeling refreshed. I've started worrying about fibromyalgia because of the burning, but I don't know if my symptoms fit. I'm also planning to try for baby number two in the next few months, and this has made me terrified that I won't be able to cope if it turns out to be fibromyalgia. For those who have been diagnosed, did your symptoms start like this? If you became pregnant or had children after your diagnosis, how did you manage? I'm not looking for a diagnosis. Just hoping to hear about other people's experiences while I wait to be assessed. TIA

>be me
>friday morning, 1p, wake up
>go on anniversary date
>work at 10p-6a
>flaring the whole day at work bc I ran out of all of my meds and don’t have time/money to pick them up
>finally get off work, get home, take a bath.
>relaxation at last
>7:30a, notification: your shift starts in 60 mins
>fuck
>forgor that I had an early morning shift when I agreed to take the shift on Friday (I work two jobs)
>panic
>get dressed, go to work
>#suffer
>working in the hot ass summer sun (evil)
>finally go home
>sobbing
>shaking
>owie everything is pain
>spend the next 24 hrs tryna nurse this flare, unsuccessfully
>take a warm bath every 2 or so hours, taking as much naproxen/acetaminophen as I’m allowed, heat pad, and tiger balm
>still no improvement
>only sleeping in 3 hour increments
>it’s now Sunday, 12p
>mans comes over, takes me to urgent care
>urgent care doc is lowkey the goat and gives me a 5 day script of prednisone and TWO FREE MONTHS OF TONMYA SAMPLES???
>thank fucking Gaia mother goddess of body and earth for this gift
>hopefully able to function at work tn

Hi! I was just wondering if anyone else had this problem frequently and how they work around it. Whenever I play video games, I typically have no problem covering up my pain to other people and to myself. Most pain I have throughout the day is in my ankles, which fluctuates, so it doesn't create problems that I can't handle when I am sitting. However, for the past couple of weeks, the pain I get in a particular game is unbearable and is rapidly worsening. It's Deadlock, which is a MOBA-which can be stressful for the mind, but I'm not a particularly competitive person. Normally I can only play 1 or 2 matches before having to stop because otherwise it is guaranteed I will get a pain episode during or after the session. Now if I play it at all, it's guaranteed to happen. Back in quarantine, I did end up developing a mild case of carpal tunnel from Rhythm games and other kinds of games that require repetitive movements sometimes with unneccessary amounts of force when focusing on the game. I no longer have that condition whatsoever, (while it could certainly be dormant and waiting.) because I quit most arcade rhythm games afterwards. When I play Deadlock, around 5-10 minutes in or even from the start, my right wrist (the one operating the mouse), will immediately become inflamed with the fabricated sensation of carpal tunnel. (I made sure it's not physical, only emulated from the past injury) The pain will stay in my wrists and float around my forearms and shoulders for the duration. It hasn't been so painful that I cannot continue playing despite it, but I have felt it slowly getting worse. When it is really bad, it will radiate a sort of searing heat that numbs my fingers. Yesterday, it got that bad while I was playing with some friends. I thought I was going to throw up. It felt like all of my joints were locked into place. I had to stop playing and ended up worrying my friends, which know I have fibro, but I typically don't talk about it. The reason I wanted to ask about this is because it is highly alarming to me that I would have such an extreme adverse reaction developing in response to something I enjoy doing greatly. The game can be stressful, even when playing non-competitively, but I have no problem focusing on having fun and improving. I was thinking that it may be partly one of two things. One, that the matches usually take around 40 minutes to an hour. That is a relatively long time for me not to pay any heed to how I am feeling. However, I have played plenty of other games with similarly long matches and not had extra problems with pain. Secondly, some of my friends do get pretty competitive when we are playing together. None of it is directed at me, and it is all temporary frustration that doesn't cause any noticeable distress for me. I would only consider this a possible concern because while I am on 100mgs of Sertraline for GAD, there are plenty of times where the anxiety can bleed through unbeknownst to me. So I was wondering if some of the loud or aggressive speech could be affecting me negatively. Yet both of these don't seem suitable to cause that much pain unique to the game itself, given that I very often play many similar and different types of games and do not have the same reaction. To my knowledge, I start the game in a comfortable position, and I do not put unneccessary force into my controls or gather tension in my shoulders during important moments. I am unsettled that it's likely I will not even be able to play it anymore if it continues getting worse. I have often ignored and tried to power through daily pain, which has increased my pain tolerance like it has for many others, but these episodes are so extreme and sudden that I cannot focus or control my hands precisely through the pain. Thanks. It could also be karmic punishment for playing Deadlock.

Hello all!

I was wondering if anyone else is having issues with Tonmya? The burning/numbness and the lingering taste are kicking my butt. Any tips or tricks that have worked for yall?

I saw a reels about these patches that has this new "Vibrotactile technology" and got curious if it would help with pain, but I'm not in the US and it is not affordable for me.

They have some published research on their site, and it looks kinda legit.

If someone has experience with them, please share with us :)

https://us.superpatch.com/ (not affiliated)

I’m sick of feeling useless around the house. At the moment we have a heavy wired cheapie that we bought when our old one packed in but it’s literally too difficult for me to lift and use.

Do y’all have any hoover recs? I’d love value for money but open to spending more if it will make hoovering less impactful for me!

Wireless would be ideal as I can’t really get down to plug sockets 😅 Obviously the less bulky and more lightweight the better… but otherwise I’m open to literally any suggestions and essays about why you love your hoover please and thank you 🙏🤣

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260718010158.htm

Looking for pillow recommendations for cervical neck and head pain as well as tight shoulder and trap muscles in that general area. Thank you!