I was officially diagnosed with fibromyalgia November 2020.
This was after ten years of complaints about pain in my shoulders, back, hips, legs and feet. This was after two children. This was after I specifically kept telling doctors there was something more.
All to be told that with this diagnosis, it was “all in my head”.
This diagnosis is not “all in my head” though.
Summer of 2021, I was hit with dizzy spells.
Fast forward to 2024 and I have dizziness on a daily basis starting at my 31st birthday. I’ve lost my job in community mental health as a result. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder earlier this month. I have had lifelong anxiety stemming from autism and was diagnosed with C-PTSD in 2016. Later, they added my C-PTSD had a dissociative factor in it.
Not long after my fibromyalgia diagnosis, I learned my ex husband was cheating on me and when I went to leave, he attacked me and called the cops on me after I defended myself. I was arrested and charged with domestic violence, but those charges were later dropped due to the DA becoming suspicious that I was actually the victim of the domestic violence.
There is new research out there, though, and now I know fibromyalgia is actually an autoimmune disorder. I know it isn’t “all in my head”. I did the mindfulness stuff to attempt to help manage my pain. I fully believe by ignoring my pain, the dizziness started. I take medications that don’t help and just had an increase, which isn’t helping the pain at all and is just exacerbating the dizziness I’ve been experiencing since April. I had steroids injected into my muscles to try to release the tension but it’s only made it worse.
I am starting this blog in the hopes that others will chime in to support and also to help others suffering from the same condition.
Here is to you other fibromyalgia warriors- we are stronger than we think and this is a battle we surely must be able to win someday. Here is to the battle and the hope that one day we can actually treat this diagnosis without doctors blaming it on weight and stress. 🥂
