Fibromyalgia can be tricky because you want to stay active with stretching and exercises, but you don’t want to overdo it. These stretches should help

If you have fibromyalgia, you are certainly acquainted with the chronic pain and tiredness that often accompanies this disease affecting about 5 million Americans, mainly females. But pain and fatigue emotions are not the only symptoms of fibromyalgia. You may be affected by other indications that are not necessarily noticeable to others and make the situation even difficult for those around you to comprehend. Here are some of the lesser-known signs you may encounter of fibromyalgia:

If someone you care about – your friend, girlfriend, spouse or partner – has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or has symptoms and is seeking a diagnosis, there are a few things you can do to help provide support. Watch our video for four tips to supporting a loved one with fibromyalgia.

In this webinar, arthritis educator Dave Cox explains what fibromyalgia is, talks about how it is diagnosed, medications used to treat it and some other therapies that may help as well as an online support group.

How do you win a fibromyalgia Social Security disability claim in 2020? As I discuss in this video, Social Security disability judges look very closely at any case where the primary impairment is fibromyalgia or any autoimmune condition.

Disability judges like to see objective evidence of your impairments and there is no MRI, CT or other objective test for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or related autoimmune conditions.

So judges have to rely on more subjective findings from treating doctors. Social Security Ruling SSR 12-2p (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/rulings/d…) sets out the considerations judges should use when evaluating a fibromyalgia case.

These guidelines call for evidence that your condition meets the American College of Rheumatology criteria for a fibromyalgia diagnosis and it requires extensive testing to rule out other causes of your symptoms. While SSR 12-2p does not require medical treatment records from a rheumatologist, my experience has been that judges will rarely accept a fibromyalgia diagnosis from a family doctor or internist.

Generally speaking, judges expect to see long time treatment records from a board certified rheumatologist, evidence that multiple therapies and medications have been tried without success, and one or more functional capacity evaluation forms from your rheumatologist that identify specific activity and reliability problems.