I am a member of a few online support groups for fibromyalgia. One re-occurring theme is that very few of us fibro-warriors have only fibromyalgia to deal with. Unfortunately, the Fibro-Troll has friends. These friends are more accurately described as co-morbid conditions.
Co-morbidity is the presence of one or more additional diseases or disorders occurring together with a primary disease or disorder. It doesn’t mean that they are caused by each other, or that everyone who has one condition will automatically have the others, but some conditions commonly occur together.
Common co-morbid conditions of fibromyalgia include (but is not limited to) :
- Myalgic Encephalitis/ Chronic fatigue syndrome – some specialists argue that ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia are slightly different manifestations of the same underlying illness, others regard them as two different disorders. Either way, they commonly occur together.
- Migraines and persistent headaches
- Dysmenorrhoea (painful periods) and PMS
- Other pain disorders – arthritis and back problems are common
- Irritable Bowl Syndrome and food intolerances – I’ve talked about gut health and why I believe nutrition plays a role in our health a little already.
- Sleep disorders – insomnia, restless leg syndrome and sleep apnoea are all common
- Anxiety and Depression – to be clear, Fibromyalgia IS NOT CAUSED by depression or anxiety, but they are common co-morbid conditions.
- Vestibular and balance disorders
- Multiple Chemical Sensitivities
These are just the most common ones, some of them are so common among fibro-warriors that they are sometimes considered symptoms of the condition.
I personally have all of these to varying degrees. I also have PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and endometriosis and I am highly sensitive to many of the traditional medications used to treat most of these conditions.
As they are common co-morbid conditions, I am going to start a bit of a series on what I do to manage each of them. I will try to keep each post as specific as I can, but some things will overlap, as nothing in the body works entirely independently of the rest of it.
My aim is to help others with any of these conditions, whether or not you also have fibromyalgia. And also to help myself, sometimes by putting things down in words they become clearer. If I am suffering a bit more from one of them, or I’m having a fibro-flare, then I can remind myself and my wonderful knight in tarnished armour of what we can do to help.
