Women who suffer from fibromyalgia (2% of the planet population) are not depressed! Not crazy, not imbalanced, not down. Nope. We can live a very fulfilling and happy life (like every other human being) in spite of our chronic condition. 

But we live with fibromyalgia. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. Every second. And that really sucks. 

Fibromyalgia is physical pain 24/7. Not psychological pain. Physical pain, in every inch of our body. For me, this pain lessens a bit only when I'm under water –that's why I love (and desperately need) swimming. Fibromyalgia is being tired all they long. Exhausted 24/7. Can you imagine that? We are tired not because we are depressed, nope, but because we have fibromyalgia. 

Fibromyalgia is real. Very real. We only fake it when we say we are not in pain. We only fake it when we say we are not tired. We only fake it when we say we are OK. 

If your mother has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.  

If your daughter has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.  

If your wife has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart. 

If your friend has fibromyalgia: have compassion, have patience, try to understand her, don't judge her, help her, protect her, and, above all, love her with all your heart.  

I hope that, little by little, people understand better how it is for a woman to live with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, there is less ignorance, less misunderstanding, and less tabus surrounding fibromyalgia, and more knowledge, more awareness, more compassion, more help, and more love.

More about my personal story: 

My fibromyalgia will not stop me

Vivir con fibromialgia (in Spanish) 

Antonia Tejeda Barros, 
Madrid, October 1, 2022