Being young with Fibromyalgia

No one talks about having it young and to be honest it makes me feel alone

When I developed fibromyalgia, I was in my 20s and back then they never heard of fibromyalgia. The doctor didn’t know and some doctors were very verbally abusive to me saying I was just looking for meds. Fibromyalgia could start at any age. It could start young. It could start old. Do your homework do a diary as to what seems to triggered it what seems to help it that way you’ll be able to control it better.
I’ve had it over 50 years
Wish you the best

I definitely had it but was not diagnosed until 40. I struggled a lot because I didn’t understand why I always have pain and fatigue. I pushed myself too hard and was in a constant cycle of never getting out of it. I thought it was my fault.

Having the diagnosis young is a blessing. It would have been a much better experience had I known why and that it wasn’t my fault. I would have given myself grace and started therapy. I wouldn’t have pushed myself as hard as I did. I ended up at the mayo er in my 40s and it’s taken 3 years to climb out of it and feel somewhat human.

I know it’s hard but you are young enough to work through it and have a full life. Therapy, Pilates, tai chi, yoga helped me tremendously. Hugs!!

@cwatt14 Mine was diagnosed at age 32, back when even most doctors doubted it was a "real thing." I struggled along with it for over 30 years, until chronic pain from fibro and other issues almost made me a "couch potato." I was finally referred to a Pain Rehabilitation Clinic (PRC) to learn to live with it. This is a lifestyle based process, not a drug dispensary - you can read about it here:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/departments-centers/pain-rehabilitation-center/sections/overview/ovc-20481691
I did not go to Mayo, but to a local outpatient PRC in my home city.
Maybe you can find a fibro or PRC clinic near you?

@cwatt14 I'm sorry to hear that you feel alone. Those of us who have lived with fibro for decades might seem unsympathetic since we were told it was all in our heads. Even the doctor who diagnosed me said, "you women. All you need is a vacation." NOT helpful! Now you have better diagnosis and some drugs to ease the symptoms. It still hurts almost all the time.
If you have not joined a support group of young people, seek out the ones on here who can relate to dreams lost and the depression that accompanies the disease. If you can afford a therapist to deal with chronic disease, get one. Ask your local hospital to start one. Be proactive.
You are in pain, but you have skills. Write more posts and you will find answers.

@minnesota10 could you share which meds you find helpful

I was in my late 20's early 30'S when I started dealing with a rapid onset of symptoms... I went from being a normal functioning and contributing member of society to a broken down shell of myself within a short period of time. I had lost a significant amount of weight (140lbs) after having gastric bypass and had become extremely active and healthier than ever. I was working as a police dispatcher and doing CrossFit 3-5 days a week along with any random opportunity for physical activity that came my way. Then out of nowhere I started having severe depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia. I was randomly prescribed several meds that were effective but also highly addictive which landed me in rehab. Was that the beginning of the fibro? Maybe... Then the physical aspects began. I opened my sliding glass door one day to let my dog out and felt something weird in my shoulder... Not pain necessarily but def something "off". Within 8 months I had no use of my arm and went to an orthopedic surgeon who said I had Frozen Shoulder. During the surgery to release my shoulder he found that in fact my shoulder wasn't Frozen but I had a torn rotator cuff which you repaired yet for months I never got better and he eventually accused me of being a drug seeker. After that I went to another oral surgeon who said you're not a drug seeker you're in pain because you also have a torn labrum that he missed so they fixed the labrum and my arm got much better since then I've had to have rotator cuff surgery on my other shoulder I have also had to have reconstruction of both of my thumbs for torn ligaments, I have had to have a complete joint replacement done of my left wrist and then ulna resection of my right wrist which includes removing a large section of bone to eliminate one of the joints in the wrist, I also had five fully herniated discs in my neck and had to have surgery on that in which they replaced three discs with prosthetic ones and inserted two steel plates with eight screws to say that I'm a broken former version of myself as an understatement. Due to both the fibro and the injuries every second of every day is consumed by extreme severe chronic pain that is unrelenting it only varies in severity that never goes away. With insomnia being a side effect of the fibromyalgia I go days without sleeping a good week for me is getting 6 hours of sleep in the entire week. No sleep only at exacerbates the problems and makes everything so much worse. Luckily I have good doctors who believe me and help me in any way that they can but the stigma is ever present. The people around me even those closest have no idea what it's like think that I'm exaggerating or a hypochondriac or just that I want to take pain pills and there's no way to explain how they are so wrong and that none of this is true. I used to think that I would love to switch places with them just for a small amount of time so they could have the understanding and therefore act appropriately once we switched back. But now my pain has gotten so severe that well sometimes I still have that thought overwhelmingly I think that instead of trying to make that understand my pain through having it I instead wish that nobody would ever have to feel this pain and that they should get down on their knees and thank God that they don't know what it's like and that they're able to be in a position of superiority and disbelief and oftentimes judgment. I wish people knew that I'm not lazy or that I don't want to work I was extremely good at my job as a dispatcher and I miss it every single day and I would love to go back to it but I can't. My mind still works I still am capable of doing any job but unfortunately my body just doesn't allow me even on the days that I tried to do something simple and helpful like some lighthouse work what happens after is so much worse simply vacuuming the floor can put me down for 2 to 3 days and that's something that's hard for anybody to understand. So as much as we wish people understood us and would sympathize or empathize with us I think it's important that we offer them the same Grace that if we were in their spot it would probably be the same it would be really hard to believe that somebody with no showing symptoms is this sick and this hurt and this injured and their pain is so bad that they literally can't do anything I know for myself I probably would not believe them. I've learned during all of this though that there is no metric system for pain you can't look at a paper with different smiley faces on it and pick one to judge what kind of day you're having it's not applicable to what we live with for fibromyalgia it's something in and of itself is its own beast and what may feel like a paper cut to you may feel like a chainsaw gas to me that doesn't mean that I'm weak that doesn't mean that I have a low threshold for pain it doesn't mean anything other than that's the way my body reads the pain signal that it's been given and I'm working very hard on not caring about the opinions of others... I could go on and on and on for days about this but I think I've already made this post way too long so I guess the answer is yeah I know what it's like to deal with it when you're young and the fear of knowing what it's going to have to be like when you're old.

At first, they told me that was all in my head. You gotta remember this is close to 50 years ago. I take a number of vitamins and One of them D-Ribose. If you try it, you must talk to your doctor first I take one pill in the morning, but do not take anything late in the day cause it can keep you up at night. That really helps my leg pain.
Then it is rest warm baths they just have to take care of yourself proper food.
But if you get stressed or upset, it could put you right back or it started from.
I wish you the very best in finding out what is best for you.