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Is Fibromyalgia real? Why people find it difficult to figure out what causes it? This sometimes leads some people to argue that fibromyalgia isn’t even real.

Is Fibromyalgia Real

One of the most commonly misunderstood disorders out there if fibromyalgia. Which is saying something considering that, there are a lot of misunderstood disorders. Its characteristics are widespread pain throughout the body. Making it a literal pain in the everything.

Not Delusion People!

Admittedly, it is a controversial diagnosis. Scientists are still hotly debating a ton about it including what role psychological factors play in causing symptoms. So let’s debunk this myth upfront. Fibromyalgia is not a delusion. The disorder is known in chronic pain communities as fibro was first formally defined in 1990.

• Chronic Condition

It’s a chronic condition that affects 2 to 8% of the population. Besides the widespread pain, it also includes symptoms like increased sensitivity to pain, difficulty sleeping, numbness. Also problems with things like concentration and memory. Usually, it’s treated by medications or cognitive behavioral therapy which aims to prevent patients from focusing on or panicking about their pain.

Why Controversial?

Why is fibro controversial? This is because psychologists have had a really difficult time figuring out how to diagnose and classify it. With such widespread symptoms, you’d think that it would be easy to take some physical measurements and diagnose someone with fibro on the spot. But it’s trickier than that because some of those symptoms can also be caused by other simultaneous conditions, like arthritis.

As for what actually causes fibromyalgia fatigue? Here’s where things get especially messy. Because there are a whole lot of factors that might trigger or contribute to all of these generalized body-wide symptoms.

Risk Factors

The most famous ones are psychological or environmental. For example, those who have had significant physical injuries or experienced psychological trauma. Especially in childhood are more prone to developing fibromyalgia. To be clear though that definitely does not mean that everyone with fibro has experienced trauma in their lives. It’s just one risk factor.

Another major one is genetics fibro runs in families. Several studies have shown relationships between its development and dysfunctional genes controlling certain neurotransmitters. Specifically serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.

Is Fibromyalgia Real or Mental

So getting a diagnosis isn’t always easy. Neither is figuring out what causes the disorder. All of that has led psychologists to disagree about what fibromyalgia should even be considered. Actually, that’s a pretty big understatement. Over the years there has been a ton of controversy over this. Some scientists have believed that since fibro is often linked to psychological factors, it should be categorized as a somatic symptom disorder.

This is a mental condition where psychological issues manifest as physical symptoms. But other researchers have argued that it would be better classified as something else. Since it could also be triggered by biology or the environment.

Pain and Symptoms

Today though many scientists say that instead, we should look at fibro in the context of biological psychological and social factors combined. Maybe unsurprisingly this is what’s known as the biopsychosocial approach. It suggests that traumatic physical or psychological events likely in combination with a genetic predisposition may lead to that extreme response to pain and those other chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms.

• Case to Case

Of course, the specifics vary case-to-case but all three branches are known to interact and play a role in producing fibromyalgia. The exact mechanics of how this plays out in the body though, are so far unknown. Unfortunately and especially because of the psychological factors involved in fibro that’s led to a common misunderstanding that patients are suffering a delusion that they’re in pain rather than being in actual pain.

• Misunderstandings

This misunderstanding is actually so widespread that it can be difficult for those with fibro to access available treatment for fibromyalgia. The reason is that they’re just not being taken seriously. But like you can’t just shrug fibromyalgia off. Even if psychologists argue about how to classify it, current research is clear that there’s nothing delusional about it.

Case Study

In one 2018 study, for example, researchers studying the mechanics of fibro patients. Sensitivity to pain showed that their brains were acting sort of explosively in response to pain stimuli. In the study scientists used EEG s to test 10 females with fibro, taking readings of their brainwaves. The readings showed signs of so-called electrical instability. Brain waves behaving more erratically than expected in response to stimuli.

• ESN

This made the researchers consider if what they were measuring. Maybe similar to what’s seen in something called explosively synchronizing networks. Explosive synchronization or ES is a phenomenon that’s usually studied in fields like physics, like with power grids rather than medicine.

• Stimulus

When it happens a tiny stimulus causes a dramatic synchronized reaction across a network. In brains that’s well explosive to a fibro sufferer. A poke in the side that would feel like nothing to your average person becomes way more intense becoming painful much more easily.

• Computer Model

To see if this is actually what was happening the researchers created computer models. Models of a brain with fibromyalgia to see how it would respond to mild stimuli. Like this suspected, the models reacted to fibromyalgia pain in the same explosive manner that patients reported.

Fibromyalgia is Nothing to Ignore

This really tells us that fibro isn’t just a case of people believing they’re experiencing more pain. Instead, it suggests that there’s a physical overreaction to pain stimuli in their brains. It may still be fuzzy what causes it. But this was a big step in the right direction even if the study was only with ten people. With more research, we could someday use this model to create new treatments for fibro. There’s still a long way to go but there’s lots of hope. In the meantime, one thing is for sure despite all of the misconceptions, fibromyalgia is nothing to ignore.

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