Fibromyalgia misdiagnosed?

[sobs1962]

Despite having a diagnosis of fibromyalgia some 20+ years ago, I was able to push it to one side and didn't have the classic symptoms of it up widespread pain,crippling fatigue,debilitating brain fog and just got on with my life,so a mind over matter thing if you like. It is only really in the last 18 months to 2 years, that I have had any symptoms that could be classed as fibromyalgia and I wonder if in fact these symptoms are totally related to my Hashimotos and nothing to do with fibromyalgia. I have serious mental health problems and I find the more I focus on having fibromyalgia, the more the symptoms appear. Any advice or other people's experience would be very useful.

[Cazleah]

Hi , now thats a thought ,ive a underactive thyroid and been told by GP ive fibromyalgia. ..the thyroid ive had for 20+years and fibromyalgia 3 years there abouts ..im well sure there 2 diffrent things ...both have different symptoms you might not get brain fog but might get the pain in your legs and arms ,and if you get stresses then the pain get worse ..i dont think its your thyroid at all as ive had it for years ..

[sobs1962 in reply to Cazleah]

Thanks for that, but there is a list of over 300 symptoms of thyroid disease and I have been told that much of what I'm experiencing can be thyroid related. I've spoken to the doctor regarding these and he didn't seem even remotely interested or concerned, so it's unlikely he will do any further investigation as apparently a lot of doctors think that women with hypothyroidism are just a bunch of hypochondriacs. That to me proves how little they know or understand about the havoc wreaked by hypothyroidism on both physical and mental health.

[Badbessie]

The symptoms of fibromyalgia and differ from person to person, along with the severity of symptoms. Any new symptoms should be discussed with your GP to eliminate other causes.

[sobs1962 in reply to Badbessie]

Have spoken to GP, but not really interested, sure he thinks I'm a hypochondriac.

[LisaSnow FMA UK Volunteer]

Another way to think of it is that maybe targeting specific symptom is more helpful than confirming a diagnosis. After all, diagnosis is just a classifier to give doctors a direction for treatment. Since there are no magic pills to cure fibromyalgia, it often doesn't matter if the diagnosis is 100% "accurate" as far as the effectiveness of treatment is concerned.

[sobs1962 in reply to LisaSnow]

He asked me about painkillers and I only take them when I really need to as have high pain threshold, but might need to take them more often if pain becomes worse or more frequent. Just have to see how it goes, but one thing I do know is, if you focus on having a specific diagnosis, it's amazing how the symptoms just appear randomly and I don't have a positive outlook due to having major depressive disorder, so honestly, the future doesn't look very good.

[LisaSnow FMA UK Volunteer in reply to sobs1962]

Yes. Our mind can get sucked into an obsessive cycle of thinking of only the worst possible outcome. That is why try to not worry about the diagnosis and focus on feeling better.

[sobs1962 in reply to LisaSnow]

Unfortunately, for me, I have Borderline Personality Disorder which makes you catastrophize just about anything and I'm in a state of constant worry and stress, I'm in longterm therapy now but I don't feel that it's working, so I feel like I'm doomed to always feel like crap 24/7.