How to Deal with Family and Friends Who Don't Understand Fibromyalgia
Explain the pain
While you deal with chronic pain, your family and friends may not. Because they do not deal with chronic pain, when they hear that you are in pain, they equate it with when they are in pain. So, for example, if you have chronic headaches, like migraines (which up to 40% of people with fibromyalgia do), and you complain to your sister who has never had a migraine in her life, she thinks your migraine pain and the headaches she occasionally gets are the same. This miscommunication can often result in negative and stressful interactions. This is why it is so important to be able to communicate with your loved ones on a level they are able to understand.
Sometimes the feeling of being unheard by your loved ones is so painful, you have trouble formulating the words you want to say. Here are some clear ways to approach these potentially difficult conversations:
