Symptoms

One of the most frustrating aspects of fibromyalgia (FMS) is that most people who have it do not look sick. People who do not understand FMS may not believe that you really have pain and discomfort. This is because fibromyalgia is a collection of symptoms, feelings or sensations that you cannot see. In addition, abnormal pain processing in the central nervous system (CNS) can cause symptoms throughout the entire body that may not seem related to each other.

FMS affects every person in a different way. You may have one set of symptoms while the next person with FMS has different ones. Your pain and other symptoms may increase, decrease or change location from day-to-day. You may feel fine one day, while the next day you feel too tired, stiff and achy to get out of bed. You may have one or more of the following symptoms of FMS:

• Widespread pain – People with FMS feel pain in different ways. You may have stinging or burning pain. You may have aching pain that makes you feel like you have the flu. You may feel pain in a more extreme way than healthy people (also called hyperalgesia). You may also feel pain from things that do not normally cause pain (also called allodynia).

• Tender points – You may have areas on your body that are abnormally sore or tender.

• Fatigue (feeling tired) – Feeling very tired can greatly affect how much activity you do during the day. Fatigue can be mild to severe. It may cause you to do less of the activities you want or need to do such as working, exercising or spending time with people you enjoy.

• Sleep problems – You may have problems going to sleep, staying asleep or feeling rested when you wake up. 

• Difficulty with thinking – You may have short-term memory and concentration difficulties. Many peoples call this “fibro-fog” because thinking, focusing on tasks, and remembering can be hard.

• Sensitivity – You may be very sensitive to things like stress, noise, light, smells, humidity, temperature changes and medicines. You may be sensitive to substances such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. Exposure to these may cause your FMS symptoms to feel worse.

• Morning stiffness – You may be very stiff when you wake up in the morning. The stiffness often improves or goes away once you begin moving around and doing daily activities. You may feel stiff after sitting down or being still for long periods of time during the day.

• Depression, anxiety or distress – Like with other chronic pain disorders, some people may have symptoms of depression and/or anxiety; however, neither depression nor anxiety is known to cause fibromyalgia.

• Other symptoms often found with FMS – You may have many other symptoms including dizziness, a sense of imbalance, or feelings of swelling, numbness or tingling. You may have restless leg syndrome or irritable bowel orirritable bladder symptoms.