Pain & childhood abuse

[linmaries]

Is there a connection between pain disorders ( such as reflex sympathetic dystrophy & fibromyalgia) and childhood abuse?

[bugs64]

Yes - I believe that fibromylagis is connected to childhood abuse.......

After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia - I did some research on my own so I could learn how to treat flare ups on my own - as sometimes I think my doctors even though it was a rheumatologist that made the diagnosis sometimes just brushes off myr pain or tries to medicate it with drugs that personally I feel just mask and if not create additional problems.....anyway with that being said - in my research it did confirm that fibrmyalgia is found in a significant amount of cases where individuals suffered childhood abuse.......my personal experience as not physical abuse but sexual......In addition, going through all the self-help books and those resources just confirmed there is a connection......Of course, I never told my rhematologist about my past and they never asked so I can't say that what I read is actually true.....But I truly believe your body holds onto feelings whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual especially when they are not positive.....your body buries these feelings so it can survive......I'm sorry I don't know which website I researched to back up this posting......best wishes...-

[bugs64]

after rereading your post I just remembered a conversation I had at my therapists office last week.  I was going to have foot surgery the next day and on the way out ofher office she started tellling me about a roommate she had when she was in the hospital for some minor surgery.....apparently this individual had  reflex sympathetic dystrophy and was having a lot of problems handling the pain from the same procedure that apparently my doctor had had........she said she assumed it was because of the reflex sympathetic dystrophy but she didn't know a whole lot about it except that it can be caused and can trigger episodes due to trauma.

Glad I remembered that conversation - hope that helps