THE BASEBALL BAT REACTION

Here we go again.

Is our pain all in our head?

If it is, what word would I use?

I found one.

I was reading a study on Pub Med.gov (I've included the link here) and there was a word for people that have a tendency to respond to illness and psychosocial stress with pain, fatigue and an increase in symptoms.

The word was Fibromyalgi-ness.

Interesting. I've never heard that word before and in the context I wasn't sure I liked it. If I get the connotation behind the definition, it's basically saying that if life gets too icky or we get sick we play Camille.

I can see me now. I'm going to place my hand on my head and faint dead away when life gets tough. If that was the case I'd be dead. I do believe that some people tend to be a little more dramatic when they are sick or hurt. Every man I've ever been with falls into this category! I've always said if men had to go through the pain of childbirth the human race would have died out.  Like everything else, there are those that magnify their symptoms and there are those that try to suck it up and hide them. 

What I think is Fibromyalgia is being shoved to the somatic disorder wastebasket.

I think I'll become Jeff Foxworthy........

If you have one or more that are distressing or disrupt your daily life......

You might be SSD.

If you spend excessive time and energy to these symptoms and your health.....

You might be SSD.

If you have a high level of anxiety about your health or symptoms.....

Well, you might be SSD.

BUT.......

If you have a predominate pain complaint....

well, you might be categorized in other psychiatric diagnoses.

I don't know about anyone else but I think this is a step back to the Stone Age....

Like I always say, I want to beat the crap out of someone with a baseball bat and let them live that way for weeks, months and years and then TELL ME THIS IS A SOMATIC DISORDER. 

(and just for the record, I'm not depressed, I haven't been abused, I haven't had tons of surgeries and I'm not overly dramatic about my health and don't sit wringing my hands about the pain)