Hi Paigew. I am really sorry your friends and family are not supporting you. That seems to be a common problem with fibro. Because we do not "look sick", people think we are exaggerating our symptoms. You could try researching fibro on the internet and letting them read the looooong list of symptoms and problems it causes. If you explain it to them in detail and they still do not believe you, then there isn't much you can do to change their mind. What I have learned is that you cannot change someone else, the only thing you can change is yourself.

So, since you can't magically make your fibro go away, you can at least (1) stop beating yourself up because they don't understand (2) stop feeling guilty for not feeling good (3) stop complaining to people who do not sympathize with you and complain on sites such as this one where people totally understand and believe you. All in all, you need to be good to yourself and take care of yourself! Good luck and I wish you many pain free days!

Hi Paige, sorry to hear you're family is not being all that empathetic. When you're newly diagnosed there's a period of adjustment that psychologically tends to manifest a lot like a death in the family - you go through all the same phases of anger/bargaining/denial, etc. Your family could be in the denial phase of all that. Not that it excuses their behavior, if they are.

So, here's the simple explanation to give them that might help: According to current research Fibromyalgia is a dysfunction of the central nervous system causing increased sensitivity to pain, sleep that doesn't "restore" or "refresh", and a host of cognitive and neurological problems.

Honestly, if you're concerned that they're really not taking you that seriously, maybe you need to call a family meeting and explain it to them? Write down a few bullet points you want to go over about how Fibro is impacting you, and explain to everyone at the same time what Fibro is.

Excellent and tough question..because I know how frustrating it is when everyone doesn't believe you or just think you don't like them because you miss an event etc. As for family members,I did print out info on Fibro one read it but still took a while to understand and others don't seem to want to understand...I also printed out info for my husband but how he really understood was when I took him to the doctor with me and had my doctor explain it to him...He understand as much as anyone without having FM can and I've come to a point that I don't care anymore what other's think..but I really needed my husband to know and understand..Friends don't really get it completely but they believe me, have no idea if they bothered to look up any info but give me a lot of slack..looking forward to other responses...and Good luck with getting friends and family to understand on at least an intellectual level..Hugs

So sorry and i hate it with all my heart to say this to you but it never ends my go to defense,only saying in my mind of couse, is i have little energy as it is due to a condition you obviously do nont care enough to educate your self about,therefore i have none to spare on you choosing to continue being ignorant of the facts i did not choose the, control this,enjoy this nor will i be cured of it, i do not get a choice to deal with it and the unending list of symptoms but you do so either choose to be my support and read watch videos whatever to tr to be more understandin or cchoose not too but dont expect me to get better because you want me to or to control the symptoms because i cant its this time about me not you so please decide so i can free myself from faking smiles for you crying over the things i no longer can do for you or things we use to do together i have to much on my plate already. One day i will get brave and let it out my mouth but for now it helps to just think it. Not trying to sound like i am a SmartA__ just plain simple truth. We did nit get a choice in the beginning and we cant choose to to nit deal with it so why are we catching crap.

If it hasn't been mentioned already, you simply must google spoon theory and pass that along to your loved ones.