Sorry you've had to put up with this but it's not uncommon. In the middle of a nasty fibro flare shortly after being diagnosed while with my extended family, I had to listen to my brother and others tell me that it was a made-up disease and it was just for crazy women and crap like that. I can tell you that one of the best things that I have done to lessen my symptoms is to get off. Gluten. Doesn't work for everybody but it works for an awful lot of people with fibro. After being off it for about 10 years and still having some breakthrough issues I found out about fodmaps, and how people with FODMAP sensitivities have a lot of issues that are very similar to what I deal with with my fibro. That's a lot more complicated to figure out what foods affect you, but I found an enzyme combination that a company sells and now I just take it with everything I eat and I can eat small amounts of bread and things like that with gluten again as long as I use the enzymes.

Bottom line though is that you and I and a whole bunch of other people know it's not made up. And it's not a catch-all. It's real and it sucks. I read a report a few years ago that a university in England did determined that people with fibro have nearly a third more nerve endings than other people which could account for the pain. I also read another study that said, if you have fibro you probably have IBS and there is now some thinking and some research looking into whether they're actually the same thing just attacking a different part of the body.