Main Symptoms:
These pain areas are the most common and tend to be the ones that hurt constantly all day: Pain in the Lower Back, Neck, Shoulders, Hips, and Jaw. The other major symptom is chronic fatigue.
Other Symptoms:
These pain areas tend to hurt some people all the time, but others just on certain days: Pain in the Elbows, Knees, Arms, Hands, Fingers, Wrists, Legs, Feet, Toes, and basically muscles you didn't know you had!
Side Effects:
These are other common effects of Fibromyalgia besides pain: Difficulty Concentrating, Headaches, Diarrhea, Constipation, Numbness, Dryness in the Eyes and Mouth, Dizziness, Swelling Tendons, Depression and/or Anxiety, and Insomnia. (Patients feel tired all the time, and most have to take a regular sleeping pill, so they can get all the rest they can while they are sleeping.)
Understanding the Symptoms:
The depression is usually caused from the basic questions of not knowing how your life is going to be in the future; If this disorder is going to get worse, or how much longer can the pain go on. It is very difficult to be in constant pain, but it can teach you to deal with just about anything. Fibromyalgia patients can be very sympathetic of others because they know how it feels to hurt all the time, to be tired all the time, and to be limited to normal activities. Sometimes the pain can hurt so bad that FS victims cannot attend school or work. It is very painful to walk, sit, and (most of all) stand for long periods of time. I can stand for 10 minutes before the pain starts getting worse. I can usually sit for about 2 hours, and I can walk for about 30 minutes before having to sit down to ease the pain.
No one can see it or feel it. That's how Fibromyalgia got the name "The Invisible Disease."
