Well-known, famous people with fibromyalgia

Yea, I've noticed that in FND too, and I think the reason for the greater acceptance of psyc accounts in these areas is that the accounts are more likely to emphasise the role of external events that the person had no control over, like trauma and abuse. So instead of telling the patient that their thinking is wrong (therefore putting the responsibility on the patient to change it), they give the person permission to attribute at least some of the blame externally (its not your fault, x, y and z happened to you, its not surprising that you've reacted in this way, now how can we help you address it).

As you say, its all a bit of subterfuge really, because we know deep down that these doctors believe only certain vulnerable persons will develop illnesses as a result of trauma. But that's not how it appears to patients. So its a really clever lie.

 

Where is the empirical data proving somatisation? I am not aware of any but the shaman will claim it is a scientific theory.

 

That is absolutely disgusting. In any setting to ask a person that, especially in the context of OH, or indeed in any context other than that where it would be explicitly relevant (eg examining evidence of a vaginal injury in the gynaecologist's office), is absolutely outrageous, and the only appropriate answer in my opinion is 'it's none of your f'ing business!!!'

Not to mention asking that could be dangerous... They think they're so f'ing clever but they dont even know that it can be massively triggering even to disclose something like that, causing dangerous levels of flooding of traumatic memories/flashbacks etc. Its unsafe & potentially abusive, not to mention outrageously personal & intrusive, to be asking things like that.




Also. I'm very sorry to hear you had that horrific experience @Ariel and that you had to deny it in order to get appropriate support with your ME. No words would do any of that reality, justice



ETA sorry about all the 'f'ing' but wow that makes me absolutely livid How dare they?

 

None. It's a belief.

 

That's absolutely appalling. She wasn't qualified to be asking you such intrusive and potentially triggering questions without any warning. Like you say, what would she have done if you said yes? Very worrying. I'm sorry that you went through that awful situation.

 

As a writer, I can be a real sucker for a neat metaphor. But then I read Susan Sontag's Illness as Metaphor, which rightly disabused me of that rabbit hole. If only she was more widely read.

WRT people with fibro or FND being more willing to embrace psychological explanations -- and especially Lady Gaga here -- I think there's a bit of being doubly victimized. As in "not only was I raped, but now that rape caused my fibromylagia." As you say, @Woolie, it gives one an explanation and an external explanation at that rather than being stuck with no explanation except random shitty luck.

 

Also it makes it seem potentially fixable - 'if I can fix/process the trauma, the pain will go away'. I think that's probably the most seductive reason to embrace it.

 

Merged thread

‘It was like someone had drugged me’ — Kirsty Young on her life-altering illness - The Sunday Times

Non paywall link below:

https://archive.ph/2022.05.28-17135...-young-on-her-life-altering-illness-hcpmzb2jq

 

Sorry for not summarising!

 

I wasnt able to read the whole article only the health related bit at the beginning so i dont know if she comes back to it later. But I have enjoyed Kirsty's work in the past & i'm glad she's doing better. I'm also glad she makes it clear that she's been very fortunate...

 

Moved post
It was like someone had drugged me’ — Kirsty Young on her life-altering illness

"The first person to be interviewed by the broadcaster Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs, back in 2006, was the illustrator Quentin Blake and the last, in 2018, was the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh. Sandwiched between those two men were hundreds of illustrious castaways and for many of them it was as if they were stepping into the confessional box rather than a studio. Instantly recognisable for her sultry Scottish brogue, Young became adept at coaxing revelations out of her guests. Morrissey told her he believed suicide to be honourable; Yoko Ono disclosed that she and John Lennon had considered aborting their son Sean; and David Walliams talked about why it would be easier if he were gay.

Today it is Young, 53, who is opening up for the first time about the debilitating illness that forced her off the airwaves in 2018. That summer she revealed that she was suffering from a form of fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes widespread pain, and would be taking a break from the programme. In July 2019, after an 11-month absence, she said she was stepping down permanently. At the time she said she was “well on the way to feeling much better” and that the enforced absence had “altered my perspective on what I should do next and so I’ve decided it’s time to pursue new challenges”. Then she disappeared. She has been gone for almost four years but next week she returns to the BBC to anchor the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

When we meet on a sunny day in north London, it is almost surreal to hear her distinctive voice up close and personal. She looks fresh-faced and bright-eyed — you would never guess the battle she has been waging. For the past few years Young has been dealing with “severe, relentless and sometimes debilitating pain. I’ve got rheumatoid arthritis with secondary fibromyalgia,” she says quietly, before taking me back to that summer in 2017 when her life started to unspool. “I had extreme joint pain,” she says. “I’d wake up and I’d feel like I’d got glass in my joints.” The pain got so bad it disrupted her sleep. “In the morning, I felt like somebody had come in with a baseball bat and given me a ‘doing’, as we say in Glasgow, in the night.”

She was also experiencing extreme physical tiredness. “I couldn’t walk up the stairs without stopping in the middle. It’s not like tiredness if you’ve had a big walk or done some gardening. It’s like somebody had drugged me, like you’d taken a sleeping tablet at the wrong time in the day and you were completely losing it.”

More at link.

 

Jonathan Ross reveals his rarely seen daughter Betty, 30, is currently using an electric wheelchair due to ongoing battle with fibromyalgia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb...y-30-currently-using-electric-wheelchair.html

 

Jonathan Ross reveals ‘it’s been tough couple of years’ for daughter with fibromyalgia

https://www.theguardian.com/society...of-years-for-daughters-fibromyalgia-diagnosis

 

Merged thread

Kirsty Young: Doctor made me feel like I was ‘crazy’ over chronic pain

Kirsty Young: Doctor made me feel like I was ‘crazy’ over chronic pain (msn.com)