What Comes First? FMS or Depression?

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MEgersheim

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Joined
Jan 18, 2014
Messages
53
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
01/2014
Country
US
State
Massachusetts
I'm curious. Those of you with depression and FMS, what came first?

For me, I was depressed as a child, but was fine in my twenties. It wasn't until I started getting hard-core symptoms of FMS and lost my job that I became depressed.

Also, how many of you have FMS and are not depressed?
 
I have fibro but no depression.... Mine is due to a car accident.
 
While we all have bouts of depression time to time, I would say the depression comes after getting fibro. Often times the depression is not caused by the fibro, but comes from the treatment we get from family and friends, and doctors. I know in my case it was the rude doctors that made me lose hope of ever finding a answer or getting better. The loss of my ability to work was the icing on the cake. :)
 
My depression has worked the other way around. I lost my job due to a car accident and the pain & medications which came afterwards.
Now a year, year and a half later I am being tossed from doctor to doctor losing hope and becoming more depressed. I will lose my Unemployment Benefits -which I originally claimed when I was well- in a few months. I cannot work because my son is now in full-time school & it was recently determined that I MUST be home when he gets out of school because he is Autistic and a long day away from his loved ones would be too much of a stressor on him. Not to mention, how many days would I end up calling in sick with the way that I feel? My severe symptoms came on SO fast, about a nine month period. I can do nothing but sit at home realizing that there is nothing that they can do for my pain and misery & there is not much out there besides what I have tried. My PCP is more worried about my depression than he is about my pain! It is my pain which is causing my depression...
 
I think for me the depression came second. I can't say for sure because depression runs on my mothers side of the family. Every time I've gone to the doctor I am asked how my depression is. I have been told, countless times, I'm bound to be depressed seeing as, I have been sol since I was 8 years old. I was put on antidepressants to combat Prednisone side effects. Therefore, I feel fine and have no idea if I am depressed or not.
 
I am convinced my step-father thinks my Fibro is caused by depression. He had the gall to say to me "There are doctors who believe that Fibromyalgia is not a real illness" the other day.

My PCP also insists that I go to a counselor and a psychiatrist to take care of my anti-depressants (& side-effects). I don't know if he is not comfortable prescribing medications or if he believes my Fibro is caused by depression. It also just hit me that he may think that medication is not the fix for anything, that you have to get to the root of the problem and that medication is just a Band-Aid, so sending me to a counselor would be the way to "fix" my depression. However, my depression is caused by the Fibro....the pain I feel, the fact that I am stuck in my bed and kept from working, playing with my son or socializing. Having this support group is much better "therapy" than talking to some guy who has no idea what this life is like.
 
I had depression first, for many years. I think it's an individual thing.....I don't think you can say it always starts with one versus the other.
 
Fibrogal,

Good insight. There are so many people out there with Fibro who don't even have depression.
 
i've had issues with depression my whole life. now the fibro and depression feed off each other. i can be depressed and physically feel not too bad; but if i'm not in a depression cloud, physically i'm road kill. can't win.
 
I'm mostly always depressed. I think I'm more so depressed since the FMS. Just because I can't do all the things I want to do. I have also had trouble with my job and am on temporary disability. I find it hard to move so I usually don't make it very far from bed. I think the depression was there first.
 
The Fibro came first and then the depression. The fibro started after a severe viral infection ( Epstein Bar) left me in the Hospital. I have an elevated ANA for awhile but it went back to normal. I did have a car accident that threw me out of my car 20 feet onto the highway and put me in a coma for 2 weeks. This happened before the viral Infection. So I can not commit to anything but work and whatever needs to be done around the house and did hire a house keeper several times to clean.
 
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