[Khione]

I'm going to keep this breif, as on other sites, when I have explained it, I've ended up writing essay long stuff.

Background - I went through a traumatic period of my life (sexual/physical abuse from an ex-boyfriend). A couple of months after I was safe and moved away, I started experiencing pain in my back and shoulders. I assumed it'd go away.

3 years later, I am still experiencing this pain. It's not severe pain, it doesn't want to make me scream out in agony. But it's definately weakening and it does hurt. Around 4 or 5 months ago, I started experiencing the pain more frequently and in more places. I also started to lose weight and my sleep, mental health and overall well-being severely deteriorated.

The pain is worse in my lower back, the very worse down my spine which spreads across my lower back in a horizontal fashion. I only get this pain, maybe once a week but it lasts for a day or two and is very uncomfortable.

Currently, I've been having a lot of difficulty with my wrists/hands and knees. At the moment, I'm sat, trying to write 3+ essays, due for tomorrow. Every 2 lines or so, I have to stop to give my hands a break. It's taken me about half an hour just to write out the title question and the first couple of lines. It's 11pm and I have 3 of these to do... I'm so screwed.

Anyway, the pain I get in my hands/knees is a sharp stabbing pain in the joints but also an overall weakness in my muscles all the way up my arms/legs. I was at my grandmother's birthday party earlier tonight and my arm went completely dead - starting with a very painful sharp shooting pain go from my elbow to my wrist and thumb joint, and then my arm went very weak and felt very heavy. It's only just gone back to normal but my hands are still hurting a hell of a lot.

The pain generally keeps to my back, neck, arms and legs. I've noticed it gets worse with stress and physical exercise.

I've also been noticing that whilst I am having a period of pain (the pain will last for a couple of hours and then go away for a little while before starting up again), I feel incredibly sensitive - the slightest prod hurts like hell. Which isn't good since lately I've also been experiencing bouts of confusion/disorientation and general clumsiness.

Other factors on my health - my mental health isn't very good (confusion/disorientation on an almost daily basis, mixing words up when writing, sleep is lacking, apetite is non-existant and general mental health issues - anxiety, PTSD and BPD symptoms are constantly there), I get dizzy very easily and am experiencing and overall weakness on a daily basis.

I said I'd try not to write an essay, and that's exactly what I have done! I appologise. Help would be appreciated. I have been to the doctors and he has sent me to get a blood test - but my anxiety is kicking in and I'm terrified to go do the blood test for numerous reasons (self-harm scars, worried about what the tests will say etc). It'd just be nice to have a general idea of what this could be before I go any further.. I don't like surprises.

Obviously I know that no one can diagnose or give a very accurate answer, but past experiences/advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!

[kaliope]

I was reading a book called waking the tiger. it is on trauma and it talks a lot about how trauma can cause pain like this that people cant find the answer to. it could be fibromyalgia. you wont know unless you go thru testing. don't worry about your self harm scars. I have never once been asked about mine. if you want help for the pain, you have to be willing to go thru the testing.

[Khione]

Originally Posted by kaliope

I was reading a book called waking the tiger. it is on trauma and it talks a lot about how trauma can cause pain like this that people cant find the answer to. it could be fibromyalgia. you wont know unless you go thru testing. don't worry about your self harm scars. I have never once been asked about mine. if you want help for the pain, you have to be willing to go thru the testing.

Thank you for your reply. I've research fibromyalgia before, but I wasn't sure about it. I will go and get the tests done at somepoint this week and make an appointment with my doctor in the next two weeks or so.

Thank you though!