There’s a grief that doesn’t come with a funeral. A silent mourning that lingers, quietly reshaping your life. This is the kind of loss that comes when fibromyalgia leaves you mourning your ‘before’ self—the version of you that existed before chronic pain took hold. It’s not a single moment, but a gradual realization that the person you once were may never return. And that realization is deeply painful. Living with fibromyalgia forces you to confront…
There’s a unique intersection where compassion meets personal struggle. As a nurse diagnosed with fibromyalgia, I found myself standing on both sides of the hospital bed. I had always believed in healing through understanding, but it wasn’t until I became a patient myself that I truly understood what it meant to live with a chronic illness. My patients, many of whom I once thought I was helping, were quietly teaching me all along. What this…
Living with fibromyalgia often narrows your world. Pain, fatigue, and unpredictable flare-ups can make it difficult to maintain regular routines, pursue career goals, or engage socially. Over time, it’s easy to feel disconnected, even invisible. But for many with fibromyalgia, volunteering offers a surprising and powerful path back to purpose, community, and self-worth. It becomes more than just an act of giving—it becomes a lifeline. The value of volunteering when you have fibromyalgia lies in…
Being eighteen is often described as a time of new beginnings, independence, and endless possibility. For many, it marks the start of adult life with dreams waiting to unfold. But for some of us, eighteen looks very different. When I say I am 18 and fibromyalgia ill, it’s not just a statement about my health—it’s a declaration of reality in a world that too often questions the validity of young people’s pain. Yes, I am…
Living with fibromyalgia already feels like a full-time battle—one that requires constant adjustments, relentless strength, and a deep understanding of your own body. But when perimenopause enters the picture, it brings a second wave of physical and emotional changes that can leave even the most resilient individuals overwhelmed. For many, going through perimenopause with fibromyalgia is not just a health challenge—it’s an identity-shaking experience. Understanding what it’s like to manage both conditions at once means…
My Preferred Pain Scale as Someone With Fibromyalgia Living with fibromyalgia is a lesson in endurance, adaptation, and radical honesty with yourself. Over the years, I’ve learned that standard pain scales just don’t capture the unique and complex ways fibromyalgia affects my body and mind. “Rate your pain from 1 to 10″ — this seemingly simple question feels almost laughably inadequate when your entire existence can be consumed by fluctuating discomfort, fatigue, and fog. So…
Fibromyalgia is more than a diagnosis. It is a constant companion of pain, fatigue, and fog that weaves itself into every corner of your life. But while managing the symptoms is a challenge on its own, trying to face fibromyalgia without a support system is an entirely different kind of suffering. It’s one that goes largely unspoken, yet deeply impacts the ability to survive and cope day by day. What it really means to not…
What Fibromyalgia Has Taught Me About Communicating With My Husband Fibromyalgia has changed every part of my life, but none more profoundly than how I communicate with my husband. It has tested our patience, deepened our compassion, and reshaped how we express love and understanding. This condition, with its unpredictable symptoms and invisible nature, demanded more than physical adaptation — it called for emotional growth and a whole new language of connection. Before fibromyalgia, our…
Trauma has a way of settling deep in the body. For some, it leaves scars that are visible and understood. For others, it weaves itself into the nervous system, slowly reshaping how the body responds to the world. When trauma leaves you with fibromyalgia illness, the connection is not always immediate or easy to explain—but it is real, and for many, life-altering. Fibromyalgia is a complex chronic condition marked by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances,…
When My Long-Term Disability Was Revoked Because I ‘Don’t Look Sick’ I never imagined that having an invisible illness would mean I’d have to fight to prove my suffering to strangers. I never thought I’d hear someone in a position of power imply that looking well equates to being well. Yet that’s exactly what happened. My long-term disability was revoked because I “don’t look sick.” That sentence changed everything. The decision was more than just…