Is Fibromyalgia Real Or In Your Head? Research Says It's Both Real And In Your Head, And There's A Solution

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes pain all over the body. If you’re reading this as a sufferer of fibromyalgia, you may have been round the carousel of treatments looking for a cure, with many asking the question ‘is Fibromyalgia real?’. 

This blog will go into why most mainstream advice on healing fibromyalgia doesn’t work, how pain science shows that 100% of pain is created in the brain, the difference between acute and chronic pain and how understanding this simple science helps you to finally heal your fibromyalgia. 

Mainstream advice on healing fibromyalgia 

The reason I say people go round a ‘carousel’ of treatments looking for a cure, is because fibromyalgia sufferers typically spend lots of time and effort going from treatment to treatment always ending up in the same place. In pain, not sure what to do next.

Even the NHS (healthcare in the UK) admits defeat, stating that there’s currently ‘no cure for fibromyalgia’. In a detailed analysis of fibromyalgia, the NHS website goes through their interpretation of the causes and possible treatments. 

They state that the causes are most likely ‘..triggered by a physically or emotionally stressful event..’ and ‘..related to abnormal chemicals in the brain changing the way the central nervous system sends pain messages around the body..’. 

It then goes on to describe treatment being centred around considering antidepressants exercise techniques or talking therapies such as CBT. 

Why mainstream advice doesn't work and how 100% of pain is created in the brain - acute vs chronic pain 

Quite simply, mainstream advice is mostly about treating the symptoms not the causes. 

The symptoms in this case being the site of the pain, and the causes being the chemicals in the brain. So if you have pain in your lower back, and you’re doing exercises and treatments to help your lower back you’ll end up not solving what’s going on, because you’re focusing on the wrong thing. 

That may seem confusing, shouldn’t you be focusing on the area of pain? - This all depends on whether pain is acute or chronic. 

Acute pain is when you have a real injury, as identified by diagnostic tests. If you have this type of pain, then you should rest the area and take the time to heal.

Chronic pain is either an injury which is still causing pain after 6 months, or an area of the body which is in pain even though there’s never been an injury. 

Whether you have acute or chronic pain, science is consistently proving that 100% of pain is created in the brain. Meaning that even if you have acute pain, the brain is sending pain signals to the site of the pain via neural pathways. Of course, if you have a real injury you should rest the area, however, the area only needs a couple of months to heal. 

Especially if you have pain in an area of your body where you’ve never sustained an injury, something very typical for fibromyalgia sufferers, pain is coming from the brain not the affected area. Likewise, if you have an injury that isn’t healing for longer than 6 months, then the affected area has already healed and is now just coming from the brain. 

So is fibromyalgia real? What’s causing the abnormal chemicals in the brain? Why does the brain keep sending pain signals to areas of the body that are fine? And what can be done about it? 

The same areas of the brain light up whether you have a physical injury or are going through emotional stress 

Studies done using fMRI scans (scans of the brain), show that the same areas of the brain light up whether we experience physical or emotional stress. Meaning that the brain sends pain signals around the body in response to emotionally stressful situations, as if you’ve had a real physical injury. 

The brain creating physical symptoms due to emotional stimuli is not unheard of, think about sweaty palms or a bad stomach when you’re nervous. The body is warning you of your nervousness by creating physical symptoms, so you simply attend to your emotions and the symptoms go away. 

Similarly if you’re chronically stressed at work or in life, the brain will chronically create physical symptoms to warn you of the stress you need to resolve. What’s more is it may not even be stress in the present day which needs resolving, studies on Adverse Childhood Experiences have consistently proven the link between unresolved stress from the past and chronic pain in the present day. 

Moreover, if you have certain personality types which are known to routinely bury emotions, you’ll be creating undue stress.

Then the pain from that stress will create more stress, which in turn creates more pain. Stress and then pain, and then pain and then stress, your brain gets stuck on autopilot sending pain everywhere to get your attention. 

You can see the pickle you can get yourself in here.  

So is fibromyalgia real? And what could be done about this?

Unequivocally, the answer to the question 'is Fibromyalgia real?' is yes and the science demonstrates this. And quite simply, the best you can do is resolve any present or past stresses. 

Journal about it, talk about it, meditate on it, take weekends off, have the difficult but necessary conversations you’ve been putting off, get to that creative outlet you’ve put aside, see your loved ones and friends more, get to nature, sleep in on the weekend, find communities of like minded people, get supportive mentors.

Learn how to take care of yourself better and you’ll start to see gradual progress in your symptoms. 

Furthermore, identify the personality traits that have been contributing to your stress and find ways to ease these traits back. Are you a high achiever? People pleaser? Perfectionist? Do gooder? A control freak? A serial planner? 

There are multiple tools and practices intended to help you on your path to recover from fibromyalgia using these theories. It’s certainly not an overnight process, but many have gone through this process and managed to recover, and so can you.

If you’d like to find out more about the steps you can take to finally heal your fibromyalgia, follow the link to my pain recovery programme.