“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood”, Marie Curie
I recently heard a presentation from a distinguished scientist speaking about fibromyalgia. The audience seemed to be mostly comprised of people with fibromyalgia. He referred to fibromyalgia as a ‘terrible disease’. My immediate reaction was not very positive as I don’t believe that fibromyalgia is a disease, but rather a syndrome, yet he also referred to pain as a disease, which also surprised me. Language is so important to our understanding of this condition and I prefer to use the word dis-ease. If we feed into this idea of a disease, more and more researchers will continue to search for the elusive and non existent virus or bacteria or continue the search for hormonal issues, without an emphasis on psycho-social causation ! Furthermore, there was much in the presentation on what the brain looks like after prolonged pain, but it seems to me that this is a chicken and egg dilemma. I would prefer that the focus be on what caused these changes rather than to assume that people with fibromyalgia are born with genetic defects. However, the question about whether or not we are born with unusual brain wiring or we acquire it from our early socialization is one which may never be answered.
The term neuroplasticity was only briefly mentioned once.
I would have liked to know his thoughts about whether or not a person could acquire this brain defect in wiring because of socio-psychological issues. He emphasized that fear was a big factor in fibromyalgia, a point that I agree with emphatically. If this is so and the ‘fight or flight’ amygdala reaction of the brain is in constant turmoil, it seems to me that this is psycho-socially induced. But of course, once again, I am only speculating.
