I have read the Mayo doesn't rely on drugs for Fibro because many of them don't provide enough relief to balance the side effects. Google "Mayo fibromyalgia managing the pain experience" which includes this: "Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a specific approach...that’s the most effective and most common way to manage fibromyalgia symptoms. CBT helps you develop the skills you need to be in charge of living your life, rather than having the symptoms run your life... learning to challenge your negative thoughts and adopt more realistic ways of thinking about your pain — and change how it makes you feel. " But classes costing almost $500 each seems excessive.
Most doctors don't understand Fibro, other than prescribing drugs, so I don't know where to begin to find good treatment or CBT therapy in my area. Not to mention sessions that are reasonably priced or covered by my insurance
After having symptoms for a year, I was diagnosed with Fibro in Dec 2022. The pain went into remission for a few months, and came back two months ago. I recently went to a pain clinic in MN and got a prescription for Low Dose Naltrexone, a newer treatment being tried for chronic pain and the only prescription med I'm taking now. It can take months to build up to the maintenance dose of LDN to help with pain, and not everyone responds. I'd like to sign up for medical marijuana.
I'm in various degress of pain every day and try to keep moving as much as I can, which is hard to do when you're in pain. I'm also battling insomnia. A big stressor is when people don't believe you're in such pain, that you're imagining your symptoms, or they don't believe fibromyalgia is even a "real" disease. Some of them might have arthritis pain, etc and don't understand why I can't just get on with things, like they do.
Hoping you (and I) find something that helps with this disease.