I was diagnosed with FMS when i was 16 and i have led a far from normal teenagers life i am now 18 and continually searching for relief of some sort my illness has been soo bad that i had to drop out of school i am currently enrolled in GED courses to be able to go to college but if my illness is not under contol by then then i dont knwo if i will be able to attend i am currently unable to work as a result of FMS i have struggled with sickness and cronic everything since the 1st grade and had no idea why untill being diagnoses with FMS and i will be blunt life pretty much sucks with this illness i am up all night and sleep till about 2 or 3 in the afternoon and am still tired after almost 12 hours of sleep if i keep going down this spiraling path i feel that this illness will further control my life and i will end up not being able to do any of the great things i have had planned for my life i hope someone will have some advice that can help me at least manage the constant pain and fatigue

Dear Aaron, Your comment here, my friend, moves me. You should not have to live this way. Maybe there are reasons this happened. If you figure out what they are, then you can do something about them. I'm wondering if you had any illnesses "before" getting FMS that could have brought on the symptoms. Sometimes... it's like our bodies get stuck in a pattern. Like you said with your sleep. You stay up all night and sleep most of the day. That is very hard on the body. (Like you didn't know that!) But really, it is. First off, write back & tell me of any other illnesses you had before FMS. If you don't want to put that info here (and you're welcomed to do so), send me a direct message on Twitter (cindacrawford). I'm now following you and would appreciate the follow, too. Anyway- send me that info. If you have to, ask your parents what illnesses you had. Okay, now for the experiment. You need to get your sleep pattern more normal because that in itself will help you feel better. I'm going to suggest that you stay up until it is a normal person's bedtime. Yes, you read this right. Stay up, don't drive, just stay up and go to bed the next day about 10 pm. When you get up the first day afterwards, you'll probably feel terrible, but you'll be up when the rest of the world is awake. Force yourself to get up in the daylight (no later than 9 am) and then stay up until 10 pm again. Then go to bed at 10 pm that day. If you do this for a few days, you will reset your internal clock. Now, I'm not saying it's easy to do that. It sounds like you've been in this pattern awhile. But, seriously, your adrenal glands are taking a WHACK by you repeating your current pattern over & over. The HPA (Hypothalamus/ Pituitary/ Adrenal) axis is a sensitive set up in the body. It regulates so many vital functions. Reducing the stress you're currently putting on your body by normalizing your sleep pattern may really help. It's worth a first try. Now, please when you do this, don't drive that first day. You'll be too tired and it could be dangerous. As it is, you're probably already sleep deprived and driving or operating machinery could be dangerous. Be careful. Pick a time when you have the luxury of being pretty non-productive for a couple days and can afford to hang around your house. Okay; I'm assuming you'll give this a try. After you do this, write me on Twitter or email me at info@healthmattersshow.com. I'll answer you back and we'll take it from there. Hang in there, my new friend. It is possible for you to get a better handle on your life and begin to feel better. *Plus, there's a 2nd advantage to keeping a normal sleep pattern. If you're up during the daylight hours, your eyes and brain register the light. That gives your body a signal to produce melatonin that it will then use to put you to sleep when it gets dark. Kinda amazing how the body works when it's really working! Now smile, Aaron, and get back to me. I care. :-))

I have been sick all my life no doctor was ever able to diagnose me with much of anything except for Hypo-Elastic joints and ADHD when i was little no medicine they ever put me on made a difference no exercises ever made a difference even when i was like 5 years old i would always be sick and they then when i turned 16 diagnosed me with FMS and it made sense why i had been in pain all my life and still continue to be in pain and it doesn't seem to change my pain level to introduce different variables like sleeping patterns or going to the gym or anything if i am not constantly on the go and moving i feel like complete and utter garbage the second i sit down to relax every muscle bone and molecule in my body hurts but if i am moving about i feel great its the downtime and the rest my body deserves and needs that hurt me in the end

It's true that some people seem to come into this life with different sicknesses, either quickly diagnosed or un-diagnosed for a long time. From the sound of your description, it sounds like you originally were working with 2 conditions. I remember hearing of other FMSers who experience those two, also. It's not uncommon for a person to be juggling more than one illness. EVEN SO... I encourage you to do what you can to try to lead a more normal everyday life, such as trying to revise your sleep schedule. I can't imagine any doctor not giving you the same advice. Such an altered sleep pattern could really being playing havoc on your entire body and making everything that much tougher, i.e. bio-chemical regulation, normal bio-rhythms, etc. Even though you've been sick to some degree most of your life, it's not impossible for your body to change. There is always hope. :-)) I encourage you to check in with the Health Matters Show Friday as I interview a special guest who will talk about the importance of "thinking" and illness. Take care. (PS- if other people have other good info for Aaron, please reply here, too.)