If you wake up and feel stiffness all over your body and it occurs to you more and more often. It hurts all over and you frequently find yourself tired. You also complain of generalized pain affecting both sides of the body and both the upper as well as lower part of the body. You have been to the doctors but they can't find anything wrong with you... These symptoms may well indicate that you have become a victim of fibromyalgia.

The American College of Rheumatology has set signs by which fibromyalgia symptoms can be classified. These symptoms include a history of widespread pain for three or more months and pain in 11 of 18 tender point sites when about 9 pounds of pressure is applied. If accompanied by chronic fatigue and non-restorative sleep, when you wake up and feel as if you haven't slept at all, there is a strong suspicion that fibromyalgia is to blame.

Fibromyalgia syndrome is an increasingly recognized chronic pain accompanied by muscles aches, pain and stiffness, somewhat soft tissue tenderness, general fatigue and sleep problems. Other people may have headaches, thinking and short-term memory problems, tingling and numbness in the hands and feet. Women may have painful menstrual periods.

Other Fibromyalgia symptoms may be:

* Chest Pains * Cognitive Dysfunction * Blurred Or Double Vision * Hypersensitivity To Sound And Smells * Irritable Bowel * Irritable Bladder * Painful Menses * Painful Urination * Shortness Of Breath * Palpitations * Multiple Sensitivities To Chemicals. * Multiple Drug Allergies Pain tends to be aggravated by weather changes as well as by stress. Some patients may complain of joint pain swelling while objective joint swelling is actually absent.

People suffering from fibromyalgia experience two unique ways of reacting to stimuli. They perceive normal stimuli as being painful and painful stimuli as being more painful than it should be. The above abnormal responses are thought to be due to an abnormality involving pain processing pathways within the central nervous system. Abnormal sleep studies have indicated alpha intrusion during delta stage four sleep and a reduction of rapid eye movement (REM). In addition, abnormal SPECT scans have suggested lower blood flow to the thalamus and caudate nucleus in the brains of fibromyalgia patients.

Fibromyalgia Treatment must be individualized by a combination of non impact aerobic exercise like swimming, stationary bike, elliptical trainer, cognitive behavioral therapy, and medication. Medications that have been found to be helpful treating Fibromyalgia include:

1) Analgetic medications which help to control pain such as Tramadol, which is a non-narcotic pain reliever, may be very helpful. Tramadol Hydrochloride should be taken with care when one is intoxicated or recently used alcohol, other narcotic pain medications, tranquilizers such as Valium, medicine for the treatment of mental illness such as schizophrenia, or street drugs.

2) Tricyclic antidepressant medications in low doses such as Fluoxetine.

3) Muscle relaxants drugs such as Cyclobenzaprine, also in low doses. 4) Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Paxil. This is for serotonin building that may provide relief for sleep and pain. Higher dosage of Paxil may be prescribed if the patient is experiencing depression as well.

People suffering from fibromyalgia have a good prognosis if taken care immediately. Most people do improve over time.