I don't know if I'm going to try and cure whatever it is I have anyway. Natural cures don't work and I have extreme reactions to medication because of being an HSP.
Just cope and survive is for me I guess
I don't like alternative methods because of some really bad experiences with other natural "cures", and I've basically tried them all. I don't really like to talk about it
Hey Korki!
Hmm, hard to talk and answer questions if you've already made up your mind about so much!
But if you "don't know" if you're "going to try", maybe you haven't yet... You're 21... maybe time will change your mind, or maybe your symptoms getting worse will... but I sure hope not.
The other day someone on a (rare) German forum said at 68 she's too old to want to take time with treatments to alleviate her symptoms. After I asked back she agreed that her symptoms aren't too bad, and that her main course of action is to watch out for triggers and prevent or reduce them, is that maybe what you mean by "cope and survive" too?
I have a different motivation because I can't do much any more, and want to do more again. Also because I've learnt to enjoy self-caring and it's fun trying out treatments, even if most hurt me like hell. That can't scare me at all.
BTW: Really, you've tried them
all? Wow - I'm curious. Pity you don't like to talk about them, but I respect that. And likewise I won't go into details here, but my list is probably more than 100 and growing, esp. if I include 30+ types & sub-types of diet, 30+ types of physio, 40+ types of supps & herbs, the various ways of alleviating and preventing triggers, and the many different kinds of mind matters like relaxation.
But maybe you are just as allergic to the word "cure" as we here are, since a few people tout that as a viable possibility and we tend to think of people being cured as not having much symptoms and probably not really having had FM, since our reality is that some of us are doing so much and only progressing in baby steps.
If you're here 'just in case' or 'just to vent'? You're welcome for that too.
It's good to know that you don't want to discuss various things, at least at the moment, but asking a question generalized to "is it worth it" (implying: for most/everyone) is asking for "trouble" in the sense that it is difficult to answer without mentioning treatment types, so forgive us for our gentle hints...
For some, getting a FM diagnosis is something to give them some peace of mind, they even do the co-called "FM/a"-test and believe the result altho it isn't accepted by research (at least not yet). Most of us don't need this tho, and it certainly doesn't seem to be a necessity for you, it's rather the opposite.
"major doctor phobia" sounds like your own kind of diagnosis and like an unchangeable fate... You haven't discouraged talking about that, so I hope it's OK to describe that my take on it is that I saw 46 docs in 1.5y, incl. a fibro/rheum. clinic (yep: pretty good insurance) to make sure everything was sorted and some caused me more mid-term pain than the FM itself. But they served me and a few still do in this respect, and I educate them about my short-term fails and mid-term successes and they give me fairly reasonable feedback and the occasional idea. Bottom line: It's good to self-advocate (which is harder when you're young) and take as much control of our appointments and what we let docs do to us; that way it's possible to overcome doctor phobia and decide ourselves which people, diagnoses and treatments suggestions we respect. Then again maybe avoiding doctors maybe enough for you "to cope and survive". Just heard the other day about a person cigarette and alcohol addict saying he'd never been to a doctor. It's your life.
Oh, almost forgot to anwer the thread question...: Since I concentrate on preventing or alleviating each symptom singly I don't care one bit which of them "is fibro". But the diagnosis helped me find people with similar symptoms and their experiences, in my case treatment ideas which won't cure me, but has greatly improved my quality of life.