It's a tricky question. The current research shows Fibro as being a chronic oversensitisation of the central nervous system, which makes it a disorder, not a disease, therefore technically no it SHOULD not progress, but as many people who have commented above agree, it does get worse over time. There are 2 parts to the issue: cause and effect, cause being the CNS sensitisation, and effect being the symptoms. The main reason for that is that when a persons brain is chronically oversensitized, the body and its multiple systems all connected by the central nervous system wear out. Our brains and bodies cannot sustain being on red alert mode forever, but essentially that is what a part of our brain (hypothalamus) has done, and everything eventually starts to break down, hence widespread pain, sleep issues, brain fog, muscle dysfunction, etc etc (for me the etc's go on for miles!). Currently there is no way to correct the issue within the brain, so we can only treat the symptoms, but it's so hard to know whether what we do to treat ourselves is effective at stopping the symptoms from progressing. But the actual cause of the symptoms is not progressive, only the symptoms themselves. I hope that made some sort of sense! I've recently come to realise that no matter what I do to treat pain and all the other symptoms, if I don't fix my sleep issues I will only get worse, because it's when the brain should be shutting down so the body can rest and repair, so that is my #1 focus now until I am getting enough quality sleep every night. If you can keep your sleep under control, your other symptoms should theoretically not worsen too greatly.

@A MyFibroTeam Member I have fibromyalgia and also claim pip and ESA. I do have other issues as well but I suggest you apply or if you have already I would recommend you appeal

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A MyFibro...

I do believe FM progresses. I am much worse than I used to be. Heck I used to work and do lots of fun things. It scares me as I get older.

I agree , sleep is vital and is a time for the body to heal. I also haven't heard FM being progressive

I have had it for ten years and it has definitely gotten worse. I think it a vicious circle. They tell you to exercise but you don't want to because you are in too much pain, but if you don't exercise, your muscles get weaker and the pain gets worse which makes you even less inclined to exercise. Catch 22.