“I married a wonderful man and we had a beautiful son,” Jemma explains. “Everything was going well. Then my body crashed. Pain screamed from every limb and joint and it was so bad, I couldn’t sleep. I was bedridden, crying, and my mother-in-law had to take over. Some days, I was in so much agony, I fantasised about suicide.”
Ali is another woman whose life was shattered by the sudden onset of unexplainable pain. This attractive actress was packing for a romantic weekend away with her boyfriend when she had an intense pain in her neck.
“The GP [doctor] said it was just a muscle spasm,” says Ali. “I flew to Venice in a neck brace and couldn’t turn my head. Talk about a passion killer.”
In fact the spasms, which migrated to between her shoulder blades, kept coming. She was referred to a rheumatologist and an orthopaedic specialist. Ali was diagnosed with chronic pain, but neither specialist could find its cause.
“I sensed everyone was coming to the conclusion I was a nutcase,” Ali recalls.
Still suffering two years later, she was alone—the boyfriend had left—and broke.
“I couldn’t perform properly and I couldn’t temp for weeks at a time either,” she says.
Like Ali, Jemma was referred to a rheumatologist, who eventually diagnosed FM, which is so strikingly similar to chronic pain syndrome, some doctors believe they are the same.
Jemma, like Ali, was offered antidepressants. Both women still find a low dose beneficial.
This supports the predominate theory on the cause of FM. Research has shown people with FM have lower levels of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, which also plays a big part in pain control and regulating sleep.
Some experts speculate physical trauma, like an injury, viruses (although no one virus has been identified), and hereditary factors all influence the onset of FM. The problem is lack of evidence.
As there is no recognized specific cause of FM or chronic pain syndrome, there is no singular test to detect it either. Diagnosis is made on the basis of a medical history and the so-called “tender spot” test, which is evidence of pain when pressure is applied to multiple parts of the body.
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