Stop scamming patients by pretending there’s a cure to Fibromyalgia

Stop scamming patients by pretending there’s a cure for Fibromyalgia. People are tired of hearing if they do “ONE EASY THING!!” all their symptoms will go away,

Generic suggestions that definitely do not cure Fibromyalgia

1. Get more sleep

Everyone with Fibromyalgia wants more sleep. Fibro patients go to sleep tired and wake up tired. They have difficulty both falling and staying asleep. Add to that painsomnia and it makes for a lot of sleepless nights. If people with Fibro could get more sleep, they would. It’s too simplistic to say if people with Fibromyalgia manage their sleep habits, they’ll be cured. 

To read more about sleep and Fibromyalgia, check out Ultimate guide to fibromyalgia and how to treat it

 

2. Get more exercise

If I had a dollar for every time exercising is thrown at me as a fix for all my problems, I’d be rich. Here’s the issue though, Saturday was a beautiful day so I spent 20 minutes weeding my flower beds which were in dire need of some attention. Here it is Monday and I am still in so much pain I can hardly walk, all from spending 20 minutes pulling weeds. Imagine what would happen if I tried to run or lift weights.

Exercise results for people in pain are mixed. Overall exercise is generally good, but it has to be tailored to the person and their body. This involves the expertise of a physical therapist, something that is not available to many people with Fibro.

Exercise results for people in pain are mixed. Overall exercise is generally good, but it has to be tailored to the person and their body. Click To Tweet

Yoga is typically suggested as a universal cure for all illnesses. Yoga is a great tool for coping with pain, but All the yoga in the world can’t make chronic pain disappear. 

3. Eat healthy food

Diet is a tricky subject for people with Fibromyalgia. Many of us have found that changing our diet in certain ways makes us feel better, but many of us have found it doesn’t change anything at all. The problem is that these solutions rarely fix everything for everyone, but doctors love to use them as a bludgeon to convince patients their pain is their fault. YOU CAN’T CURE FIBROMYALGIA OR CFS/ME WITH FOOD, you can only mitigate symptoms. 

 

4. Lower your pain levels

If only it were that easy. Many doctors are reluctant to hand out opioids because they are afraid of getting in trouble. Especially doctors who treat many chronic pain patients because they have to worry about being investigated for handing out too many narcotics.  Also, many patients who ask for pain medicine are labeled drug seekers and addicts, and then it’s impossible to get help.

Additionally, the sexism and racism in the medical system deny women and POC treatment for pain or even acknowledgment of it.

Women are:

• More likely to be given sedatives for their pain, while men are more likely to be given pain medication.
• Less likely than men to be admitted to intensive care units and to get certain procedures, once they arrive there; they are also more likely to die in the ICU.
• Going to have to wait longer than men before they get any pain medicine in the ER—65 minutes on average, compared with 49 for men.

Meanwhile:

• Black children regularly receive less pain treatment than white children
• Half of a sample of white medical students and residents believe that black people feel less pain than white people because their skin is thicker

And the depressing statistics go on and on. There is no guarantee that seeing a doctor, or even dozens of doctors will produce any results.

And if you try non-pharmaceutical methods, they can have mixed results. Pain relief without medication has its uses, I love my heating pad, Epsom salts baths, pain relieving creams, and pain relief devices. But when my pain gets bad they are all useless. Only opioids can bring my levels down and I haven’t had access to those in years.

#5- Having a good attitude

If only life were so simple that having a positive attitude cures all illnesses. Positive thinking is a coping mechanism, not a cure. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and they aren’t fixable. It’s a scam to tell patients their attitude will make all their problems go away. Of course, having a good attitude will lighten your load, but it won’t change your circumstances.

 

It’s time to stop lying to Fibromyalgia and chronic illness patients. By its very nature, chronic illness is chronic.  It’s not laziness or faking. You haven’t been able to cure yourself because there is no cure.