The Credibility Issue

As if coping with pain and fatigue on a daily basis is not enough, many people with fibromyalgia are forced to convince others that the symptoms they experience are real.

More women than men are affected by fibromyalgia. In addition, fibromyalgia is difficult to diagnose, with no diagnostic test available at this time to indicate clearly that someone has the condition. The combination of these two factors leads many to believe that fibromyalgia is not a true illness, and that people who state they have fibromyalgia are malingering.

Many patients go years with vague symptoms that don’t add up to any easily identified condition. Doctors, too, are guilty of writing off patient’s complaints of chronic pain as a psychological condition or an effort to gain prescriptions for pain medications. Patients may go from doctor to doctor, knowing that something is wrong but failing to find anyone who will listen.

Although the issue of credibility has improved, and drugs have been developed and approved to treat the condition (Lyrica, Savella and Cymbalta), many patients still find that they are not supported in their diagnosis, even by their doctors, who should be the people that lend legitimacy to the condition. Fibromyalgia was not recognized as a true condition, with a proscribed set of symptoms, until the 1990’s. Even today, the medical community contains many non-believers.

Part of the problem may be that the majority of patients are young to middle-aged women. It has been put forth that, were the same number of men affected, the condition would be more accepted as a valid condition.

Although times are changing and the condition is becoming better known, both in the medical community and in the public at large, there remains a lot of work to be done to spread awareness that fibromyalgia is real and the patients suffering from fibromyalgia are experiencing a condition that can change their lives forever.