Fibromyalgia: Does anyone else have it? What has been helpful for you? Do you have it under control? Diet? Exercise?

Fibromyalgia is a puzzle, because it doesn't seem to produce a physical cause. My current opinion (based on my wife's case, her support groups, and the case of a school classmate of mine) is that Fibromyalgia has a large mental component. No, fibromyalgia isn't "all in your head", but it does respond to remedies that treat the mental causes of illness.In my experience, managing stress is the first step.

Many Fibromyalgia sufferers had a trigger experience (with my classmate, it was the year caring for her mother, who passed away from cancer) and that stress has to be managed. Counseling, exercise, and occasionally even psychiatric medication often clear up the pain along with stress. Depression medication is occasionally an effective treatment, if you are suffering symptoms of depression.

If you are jogging/running daily, I would experiment with switching to walking/bicycling along with light weight training. The idea is for your exercise to take away stress, not add it, particularly to your joints. And, as strange as it seems, expect the pain and other symptoms to go away.

Unlike other diseases, Fibromyalgia is much more likely to go away if you believe it will. The mere act of pretending it's not there lowers your symptoms and frequency of attacks. Hope this helps!