Men with Fibro SCOTT’S STORY

Courtesy of Dominie Bush

Sometime during my mid teen years I began to have great difficulty sleeping. It would take me 1-2 hours or more to fall asleep. Waking up in the morning I felt as if I had not slept at all. I hated mornings. However, I was still able to function normally albeit I was ready to take a nap at any given moment. I finished high school a half-year early because I had already fulfilled the required number of credits for graduation. I enrolled in college and began my first semester in the spring of 1981. At this time I also took a job with a landscaping company to help pay for my college tuition. It was very hard manual labor. I would often go home too exhausted to eat and would simply plop down in bed, dirty clothes and all, and fall asleep. Mornings brought no relief from the fatigue yet I kept pressing on. Getting through college was extremely hard. Not because the academics were more difficult than they were for anyone else. It was the simple fact that I had great difficulty staying awake during class and while studying. I thought what I was experiencing was normal. I was to find out in later years that it was not.

With the Lord’s help and the strength that youth brings I was able to graduate from college. However, the fatigue would continue to plague me as I entered the workforce. I found I had the same problem at a corporate desk that I did at a classroom desk. I was becoming deeply depressed and it was at this point in my life that I began to entertain suicidal thoughts.

Please continue reading Scott’s story at www.skblades.net/fibro/fibro.html. Scott’s experience with insomnia is similar to mine – beginning in the mid-teen years. See www.fms-help.com/insomnia.htm. I once heard from a man in his 70′s who had not slept since he was 18 in boot camp! He said, “If you think boot camp is rough, try it without sleep!” He went on to have a life filled with bad health, physical suffering, surgeries, etc. Years later, he called to report that he had finally slept after he began taking an immune balancing powder. I have often wondered if the vaccinations he was given in boot camp damaged his immune function and the part of the brain that controls sleep. Or perhaps the stress of boot camp itself changed his brain function or chemicals. I hear from many more teens now who are developing insomnia, FMS and CFIDS. Wonder what’s going on? Could it be a virus, a mycoplasma infection, or too much modern day stress? More comments about kids and teens with FMS/CFIDS is at www.fms-help.com/teens.htm. After much stress in my life, my health collapsed in June of 1982 (literally overnight) when I was 30. I was diagnosed shortly thereafter with fibromyalgia (then called “fibrositis”). My story is at www.fms-help.com/fibro.htm. Fibromyalgia is an epidemic now – hindering and hurting people at every stage of life – all over the world! Still, doctors can’t seem to help us much. Many don’t “believe” in fibromyalgia, and the ones who do don’t understand it unless they have it themselves (assuming they can still practice while battling this disabling condition!) See my 100 Tips for Coping with Fibromyalgia and Insomnia at www.fms-help.com/tips.htm for some things I’ve learned as a fellow sufferer.

Courtesy of Domini Bush