Fibromyalgia is not an autoimmune problem. There are several diseases that are and with these the body basically rejects itself. These diseases are autoimmune, type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis , thyroid disease.At this point Fibromyalgia is referred to as a syndrome and not as a disease because doctors don't know why it happened and there is no cure. Syndrome just means some illness with multiple symptoms with no cure. I see a Rheumatologist who knows a lot about fibromyalgia. I hope this helps.

I have both a Neurologist and a Rheumatologist. I believe Fibro is related to such autoimmune diseases as Lupus and MS. There are a growing number of people who have both diagnoses. Fibro affects the nervous system and causes inflammation. Because the symptoms appear to be

My last physician said, that they are still not sure how to classify this disease but most people i have talked to said a athritis doctor helps more than any other. I myself have believed that the fibro had something to do with autoimmune because something is stopping your body from the natural healing process you get when you go into deep sleep. I wrote down notes because i got sent to a psychiatrist because it was said ti was all in my head and they put my on all kinds of anitdepressants and i have never been a depressed person. The thing is these drugs through me into depression and didn't help the pain or fatique at all. In fact my husband found that they made me suicidal and irritated he told my doctor to pull me off those anidepressants and all antisycotic drugs. The issue was pain and feeling like i hadn't slept in years. The pain was real, it was there, i have never been a complainer and had two of my 4 children without pain meds and didn't cry scream or wimper one bit. I wish some doctor would start checking newly diagnosed peoples immume system or ask questions like have they had a cold or the flu or any bacteria infection or even shingles or the chicken pox. I remember getting a terrible cold before i was diagnose it felt like the flu. before this diaganosis i played football with my children, softbal volleyball and took care of a household of eight. I asked what in the world happen to this hyper active mom that is too tired to sometimes even get up to go to the rest room. Take care my friends but we have to find the cure ourselve, i don't believe anyone is looking for one. i am meeting new and newer people every day.

I tend to think of it more as autoimmune too. I've had a weak immune system all my life, suffering from allergies and asthma, and I even had the chicken pox twice as a kid (mild as a baby and then full blown at 6 years old.) Chicken pox didn't ever leave my system completely and I had another form of it in Bell's Palsy as an adult (hope I don't get shingles too...) I still wonder if the onset of my Fibromyalgia was after a particularly rough winter of flu and bronchitis that lasted for over 3 months. I felt like I never recovered fully after that and that was when I couldn't shake the fatigue ever again.

Hello!
I see a rheumatologist but started seeing her first actually for an auto-immune disease related to lupus altho recently I was diagnosed with full blown lupus. She diagnosed my fibromyalgia also and told me it was likely caused by my lupus and that she would treat it for me being a rheumatologist as they are the ones who treat musculoskeletal diseases like arthritis and fibromyalgia is the second most common musculoskeletal disease after arthritis. (All this info comes from her but I believe she said you can also verify this on webmd and such if you wanted to research it). I see a neurologist as well but did before diagnosis for chronic headaches and migraines however they can be caused by the fibro so everything kind of goes hand in hand. I just scheduled my first pain management appt so I agree if it's available where you live its a great thing to take advantage of. But it's also true fibro is notoriously difficult to treat. It's not known what causes it and what to really to do treat it well. I'm also told they do believe it's half psychological and half physical. We all have some crappy luck!! LOL!! Happy Holidays everyone!! :)