Am I wrong to think I've got fibromyalgia?

Hey there,

This message is pretty long, but it's difficult to describe what I'm feeling in a few words. Please try to read it all because I would appreciate opinions.

I've been having symptoms akin to fibromyalgia for the past 6/7 months. It started by an intense bloated feeling in my gut, feeling like there was a blockage in my intestines and my digestive cogs weren't turning normally. This was accompanied by a very loud grumbling sound. I went to see my GP to find out whether I had coeliac disease or some gluten-related condition, but that option was ruled out after a blood-test.

The digestive symptoms subsided shortly after seeing the doctor, and I thought I was on the road to feeling healthy and confident in my body. However, a few weeks after, I started developing pains in my upper abdomen, which are still with me today. The pain seems to alternate between different parts of my ribs and upper back, and the pain is targeted to these areas (in order of frequency):

Left rib (with occasional twicting)

Sternum (accompanied by occasional twitching, especially when I yawn)

Upper back (a pain which is feels deep in my spine)

Left shoulder/shoulder blade

I also occasionally get pains in my leg muscles, like they've been overworked, even though I'm not doing anything strenuous. I also have spider veins running along my ribs, along with dark patches under my eyes, which concern me greatly.

One more thing I should mention is that it feels a bit psychosomatic, in the sense that the pain subsides when my mind is occupied, although there is usually a dull pain remaining. When I'm nervous/anxious, or when my body is on my mind, the pain increases and everything starts to spiral out of control.

My mental symptoms include some kind of depression and anxiety, like I've lost myself, and my personality has suffered some sort of shift, leaving me feeling quite empty inside. I am also a musician, and was very confident of myself in music college, and found that my confidence has dwindled and I've forget all the music theory that I've worked so hard to learn. I sometimes struggle in conversation; I used to be able to explain myself eloquently, but it feels as if I've forgotten a load of words which I used to know. The mental symptoms can be summed up in this nutshell (excuse the expletive but I need to include it to convey the frustration):

"Who the f*** am I again?"

I seem to sleep fairly undisturbed, but I've been going to bed past midnight for as long as I remember, I usually get about 6/7 hours or sleep or not, but I hardly ever go to bed before midnight.

I went to see the doctor again to have my chest checked out (I was terrified that I have the big C). The doctor used a stethoscope and said my chest was clear, she also took my oxygen levels in my blood which were at 98%.

I explained to her that I've considered it to be fibromyalgia, but she said, and I paraphrase:

"I don't think you should be going down that road."

The GPs i've seen don't seem to be at all helpful in dicussing other options as to what I might be feeling, they just checked me out, found that nothing too alarming was going on and just sent me on my way. I try to take my mind off it all, thinking it is psychosomatic. Sometimes it seems to do the trick, but the pain always seems to be somewhere, even if it is dull sometimes.

The only solace I try to get is from my friends and family, but they don't understand what it is I'm going through. My dad says it's all in my head, and friend chuckled slightly when he saw me posting in here, as if I'm being irrational. I'm sick of talking about it to everbody. Does anybody else understand what I'm feeling? It would be nice not to feel so alone with this problem.

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