I know what I'm about to say may turn you off, but I have had this disease for 11 years and I have tried, literally every drug on the market for pain. I ended up three years ago, taking 18 pills per day. Among these were morphine and clonazepam. The rest of the pills were to combat the side effects of the other pills.
I decided to stop taking all pain medication three years ago. It is NOT easy. It took six long months, duriing most of which I wasn't able to function most of the time. I started eating healthy and exercising. I have never done either of these things in my life, so that was also very difficult. You can start eating healthy immediately, but the exercise part must go slowly and you can't give up because it's hard at first. Now that I've been doing this for a couple of years, I am more fit than I have ever been in my life. My arms and legs have muscle definition, which is a welcome relief from the weight gain that came along with all of the pills.
I did all of this, and my pain is now tolerable. At night, I smoke medical marijuana and that makes sure I get a good night's sleep. I am able to go back to work, physically. Unfortunately, my mental state is preventing that right now. I waited too long, and went through too much. I am now working on that part of it.
The reason I'm writing this is in the hope that someone who has been newly diagnosed will read it and take it to heart. I was recently told that veterinarians have more knowledge of drug side effects than medical doctors. These doctors are sold these drugs by the manufacturers. Nobody in the medical field ever told me to eat healthy and exercise. They just kept on giving me more pills.
I lost everything I owned including my home, my vehicle and a lot of friends and family while I was on those pillss. Right now I am one step away from being homeless, but I am sure that next year will be better and that I'll get back to work in 2016. I know how scary the thought of going off medication is, but this disease isn't going to kill us, the effects of the medication might.,

I've NEVER been to a Dr yet that didn't 1st recommend exercise and eating healthy. NEVER! I exercised AND and ate healthy and I continued to have exquisite pain. I went 5-6-7 days with no sleep. The Drs all said when your body gets tired enough... You'll sleep. I was in severe pain and exhaustion and yet my brain still would not shut down and allow me to sleep. Some ppl can make it w/o medications but please don't say we shouldn't depend on them. For me...it was the difference between depending on medications which I will gladly do... Or suicide. That's a major difference I know but all of us have different pain tolerance's. Mine is just not as high as yours.

You're not alone. I was a teacher, and it was difficult for me to complete sentences without being out of breath. I also had a difficult time coming up with words that I was trying to use. My teenage audiences were not very forgiving. Fortunately, I was able to retire early, but it has caused my family great financial distress.

I am sorry if my answer offended anyone. I understand that we all have very different symptoms from this very debilitating disease. I too considered suicide because no matter what pills they gave me, nothing worked. Exercise and healthy eating is only one way to help. I still take anti-depressants (which are also supposed to provide pain relief) and anti-anxiety meds. These make sure that I'm able to go and do the exercise. Despite feeling well physically, the pain is still there all the time, I'm just better able to handle it. As far as my mental health, that has been destroyed by this disease, mainly because I don't know anyone who believes it's real, with the exception of the others who suffer from it. I still consider suicide often, because of all the loss, but so far so good - I'm still here. Not a great topic for today but we all have the same problems and I don't want to be responsible for anyone thinking that I was offering up a miracle cure. I'm just writing about my own experience with the hope that my experience might help others. I spent 8 years on pain meds before I was able to even consider the option of not takng them. I would panic if I started to run out and I would count the pills frantically whenever I got them, in case there wasn't enough to get me through the month. I have been a lot of places with this disease and found a way to survive. Life isn't great - but I'm still here.
Merry Christmas

My experience is being told that sufficient REM sleep is a huge key to controlling fibro. I don't think even the smartest of medical community has the absolute correct answer. They simply haven't pinpointed the exact cause. Educated guesses. If there were a definitive answer, it would be in all the medical books, etc.