Greetings,
@MrSurreal , and welcome to the forum
You have a lot going on and have said a lot in one brief paragraph. I am sorry for everything you are going through. Maybe being a part of this forum will help you; if nothing else, you will know that you are not alone with this and there are those of us who want to help and support you in your efforts to learn to manage this.
First, getting an official diagnosis of fibromyalgia usually requires that you be tested for everything else that could be causing the symptoms you have, and for all of those tests to come up negative. It's very important to get these tests. Diagnosing yourself is unwise because if you have something else and don't know about it you could be missing out on treatment, and you could be thinking you have one kind of disorder when it really is a different thing altogether.
Now, the thing is that if you have no money and no insurance it's pretty hard to get the tests. It seems unlikely that a doctor is doing to do this without payment.
I lived my entire life without health insurance and without money, so I can relate to your situation. Whenever I needed health care I always found a sliding-scale clinic or a free one or else did without. If I lived in a state or county or town that had a program for providing health insurance at reduced cost for people with very low or no income, then I took advantage of that. Every place I lived in had something like that, but I don't know what's available where you live. I assume that you have thoroughly investigated this?
One thing I learned in my life, being a person who never had money or insurance or any of the things people are "supposed" to have in this society, is that if I really
need something I can get it. It will just take longer, and it will require that I never give up. I found that if I was persistent enough and kept trying eventually I would find someone who would help me and some place I could get medical attention when I needed it. I just had to be tough and totally persistent and believe that eventually I would have success as long as I didn't give up. I hope that the same proves to be true for you. There are rarely any "loopholes", but you can usually get what you need if you keep trying.
When someone says "no", I thank them and ask them to recommend to me another place I can try. I am unfailingly polite and pleasant, never try to tell these people my troubles or sound sorry for myself, just state facts and do it in a really friendly way so they will want to talk to me. I thank everyone, whether they help me or not. If I am tired or overwhelmed or angry or frustrated, I don't make the next call until I can do it, maybe the next day, while being super nice and friendly and grateful. I found the minute anyone thought I was complaining about how I couldn't get help, I would lose them. Those folks on the phone probably hear people complain all day and get tired of it so if someone comes along and is really nice and respectful and doesn't complain, they get a break from that and want to help. At least, that's what I've always figured.
These days there is a lot of work you can do from home. Have you considered this kind of employment? Maybe that's not suitable for your skills, I don't know.....it's only an idea.
Getting disability payments is very, very difficult for almost everyone who applies, so don't take that personally. Maybe someone here can help you with that. All I know is that it takes most people 2 or 3 applications before they receive n acceptance. There are some places where people will help with the application, but I don't know how you'd find them. Maybe you can do an internet search to see if there's a non-profit organization in your area that helps people with these things?
Meantime, there are a lot of things you can do for yourself that might help you to feel better physically, and to manage the fibromyalgia as best you can. I wrote a post about it and recommend you read it and give some things a try. Hang in there. And if there's anything we can do to help let us know.
My advice for managing fibromyalgia (especially for newcomers)
