Fifteen Most Important Fibromyalgia Signs and Symptoms you just cannot ignore
Many people are unaware of how devastating fibromyalgia can be for the patient. Below are 15 Fibromyalgia signs and symptoms.
1. Extreme Fatigue: Feeling exhausted upon waking after a long night’s sleep is common for people with fibromyalgia. People with Fibromyalgia signs often describe fatigue as being draining or like carrying dead weight. The fatigue can be so severe that a person has difficulty performing even the most basic daily tasks.
2. Musculoskeletal Pain: The widespread pain experienced by fibromyalgia sufferers is its hallmark fibromyalgia symptom. For pain to be considered to be widespread and considered fibromyalgia pain, it must occur on either both sides of a person’s body or include pain both above and below the waist. This pain may also be centralized in specific trigger points on a person’s body that spread the pain to different regions when pressure is applied
3. Difficulty Concentrating: Lack of focus, inability to pay attention and memory lapses are all cognitive symptoms of fibromyalgia. Those with fibromyalgia often refer to this set of symptoms as “fibro fog.”
4. Sleep Disorders: Trouble falling or staying asleep is another Fibromyalgia sign. Many sufferers experience frequent night wakings and other disruptions that lead to further feelings of exhaustion during the day.
5. Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Although no one knows why the majority of people with fibromyalgia also have this disorder. Diarrhea, constipation, pain and bloating, and nausea are symptoms that are experienced by people with both of these disorders.
6. Irregular Heartbeat/Heart Palpitations: Cardiac symptoms can be especially upsetting to fibromyalgia patients, yet testing tends to reveal no underlying cause. Heart palpitations do tend to respond to deep breathing and other relaxation techniques.
7. Headaches: Chronic migraines affect more than half of those diagnosed with Fibromyalgia signs. The majority of these headaches are classified as causing severe pain, and they occur three or more times a week. Many people experience multiple headaches during a single day.
8. TMJ or Jaw Pain: Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ) disorder affects about one-fourth of those with fibromyalgia. Facial pain that originates in the jaw may also spread to a person’s head or neck. Usually, the pain is associated more with the ligaments and muscles within a person’s jaw area rather than the joints.
9. Bladder Disorders: Irritable bladder, frequent urinary infections, and incontinence are also found in those with Fibromyalgia signs. Burning with urination and abdominal pain may feel more severe to people with this disorder.
10. Vision Disturbances: Dry or burning eyes, blurred vision, and difficulty focusing are a few ways that Fibromyalgia signs can disrupt a person’s vision. These symptoms may occur along with headaches or dizziness. However, they can also occur alone.
11. Increased Sensitivities: With fibromyalgia, it can often feel as though a person’s senses are in overdrive. Bright lights and strong odors may increase other symptoms such as headaches. A person may also discover that they are more sensitive to medications, and they may have a greater chance of developing side effects.
12. Balance Problems: The widespread pain and fatigue caused by this disorder can also lead to some people having trouble with their balance. For this reason, it is important for anyone with this disorder to guard against falls. Dizziness may occur along with balance issues.
13. Numbness and Tingling: Random tingles in a person’s extremities with no known cause could just be another symptom of Fibromyalgia signs. Carpal tunnel syndrome is also commonly found in people with this disorder.
14. Trouble Exercising: In a healthy person, exercise releases pain-relieving endorphins, however, a person with Fibromyalgia signs will experience increased pain after even moderate workouts. Breaking exercise sessions into several, shorter workouts can help to alleviate pain sensitivities.
15. Premenstrual Syndrome: Women with fibromyalgia may experience more severe symptoms of PMS. Painful cramping, heavy periods, and mood changes are a few fibromyalgia symptoms experienced by female fibromyalgia patients. Share if you can please.
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Dang, I have these and more.. Fibro affects my limbs, both sides, especially my legs. Over 25 years with this. Prayers for all chronic pain sufferers.
Thank you, Pamela. I have most of these, as well, I’m 38 and have felt these since at least 30. I have always had horrible agonizing period cramps since age 12.
Out of these 15 I have 13, my chronic pain is the worse. I just had foot surgery 4 weeks ago. For a regular person that has a normal pain level they can recover in a normal way for us fibromyalgia suffers the pain level is like 4 to 5 times stronger! Am not exaggerating my surgeon told me it would take me a little longer, it’s horrible pain!
Hi Pamela I have all of these at different times and can just pull my hair out and have a temper tantrum all in one. This is like waking your nerves up with a red hot poker and extreme pain with it. All day exhaustion and frustration. How I managed to go to work, cook every night and clean my home for so many years before this hit.
I have 13 of these and have sought help from my GP for them all individually at some point over the last fifteen or so years. However, never have any of the many different doctors or specialists ever considered them all together as a whole and diagnosed what is now evident to me as fibromyalgia. Each medic is only concerned with their own specific field of practice and with the actual symptom I present with in isolation and without taking the time to consider ALL of them together. Meanwhile I’ve lost count of the number of MRIs, CATscans, x-rays, CTscans, de-nervation procedures and more I’ve had and been sent from GP to neurologist to pain clinic to surgeon to psychotherapist and back again. It seems that as long as it’s “just” pain and they can’t find an obvious reason then they just shrug and refer me (if I’m lucky!) to yet another department.