John’s back pain began to take over his life. It was his first thought every morning when he struggled out of bed. It was what he discussed with his friends. It was the source of fighting with his wife. John had a sense that people began avoiding him. He knew they didn’t want to hear about how crummy he felt. He didn’t want to talk about it either, but he was no longer able to work because of the pain and so he felt the need to justify himself.

His wife had lost patience with John. She was an empathetic soul, but couldn’t understand why he couldn’t simply deal with the pain and get back to work. She knew other people who worked with chronic pain. He had become a different person than the one she had married. Once the rock in her life, John now appeared feeble and needy.

John had seen several different specialists. Each had promised him that they could make him better and yet nothing had worked. Ultimately, he had been sent to a pain management doctor. While the decision to treat the pain may seem prudent, pain management often functions as a dumping ground for patients who are deemed not helpable. This doctor told John that the other doctors, by not sufficiently treating his pain early in its course, had enabled the growth of a pain pattern. He prescribed narcotic pain medications. At first, the drugs helped, but now John was not so sure. His wife thought that the medications had further “changed” John and this added to their deteriorating relationship.

Finally, still searching for both a diagnosis and a solution, John sought out a rheumatologist who told him he had fibromyalgia, an autoimmune disease. While there is no blood test or scan to make this diagnosis, John’s sensitivity to palpation of his muscles was the hallmark of the disease. The rheumatologist confidently told John that he was certain of the diagnosis.

He suggested an antidepressant. Although John didn’t want to add another medication, he obliged, secretly thrilled with the diagnosis because, finally, he had an explanation for his pain. His wife and friends had doubted him—he had doubted himself—and now he was vindicated. This is why he couldn’t work. This is why he wasn’t himself. Sure, this was his plight in life, but at least there was a reason he felt the way he did.

But, is the diagnosis of fibromyalgia agood thing in this