1. Fibromyalgia Myths: People with fibromyalgia are just drug addicts.
All fibromyalgia patients are high on painkillers making them druggies of the worst sort. These drugs are just handed out by doctors like candy, right? Not exactly.
I have addressed this more times than I can count, you can read more at any of the articles below:
Why people with chronic pain take opioids
Chronic pain and the opioid crisis: How a myth defines treatment for pain patients
The real opioid crisis is what’s happening to people with chronic pain
How is Fibromyalgia so painful and what does the pain feel like?
And finally, read here about the high suicide risk for people with chronic pain. Sounds like a picnic huh?
2. People with Fibromyalgia can’t be in that much pain
There’s a lot we don’t know about fibromyalgia, but researchers have recently been learning more. In people who have fibromyalgia, the brain, and spinal cord process pain signals differently resulting in sensory overload, That’s why FIbromyalgia patients react strongly to touch and pressure, with a heightened sensitivity to pain. It is a real physiological and neurochemical problem. We can’t even shower without pain.
People with Fibromyalgia often report trouble with:
- chronic pain and tenderness
- sensitivity to sounds
- sensitivity to smells
- sensitivity to temperature changes
- sensitivity to touch
Everyone’s bodies react to all kinds of noise, flashing or bright lights, loud people, strong smells, and chaos. But with Fibromyalgia our bodies can have a hard time processing all of this at once. We’re unable to tune things out and our senses are bombarding our brains with information that our brains can’t handle.
3. It’s easy to get disability benefits for Fibromyalgia.
Many patients have to wait years in order to receive disability payments. They are turned down two or three times and in the meantime, they are unable to work and are living on nothing. Even if they win eventually, they aren’t generally living high on the disability hog, the most money I’ve ever heard of somebody receiving was $800. Good luck paying rent and medical bills on that. And if you go even 50 cents over the income line, you lose all assistance. That is why the United States still doesn’t have marriage equality. Disabled people can’t get married without losing benefits and putting themselves in a potentially abusive situation.
To learn more look at this article about how disability testing for fibromyalgia is often misleading and leads to inaccurate results and denial of benefits. Read here about all the things that fibromyalgia patients have to take into account and figure out when they can no longer work.
4. Fibromyalgia only affects women
While 75-95 % of people with Fibromyalgia are women, men can also be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. Out of the 10 million adults affected in the U.S., men make up approximately 1 million.
5. Fibromyalgia Myths: People with Fibromyalgia are just lazy
Despite what most people think it’s actually not fun to be in pain all the time. It’s also not fun to be forced into resting a lot resulting in you missing out on all the fun that other people are having. I don’t know about you but I absolutely love staying home while everyone else gets to go out and do things! I love that every time I walk for any period of time I end up in horrible pain! It is so freakin fun, you should try it too!
