Customer Reviews

Your Personal Guide to Fibromyalgia

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was a long awaited publication by the Arthritis Foundation. I could not wait until it was available. However, upon reading the book, I found it to be filled with propaganda, that has a pull yourself together and pretend your not in pain atittutude. While it has been admitted that Fibromyalgia can be as disabling as Rheumatoid Arthritis, a chapter on disability issues is not included in the book. People with Fibromyalgia are suffering with a Chronic Invisible Illness which usually takes years before proper diagnosis and treatment can be started. For some afflicted with this condition daily life becomes full of pain. Excercise and self care are important, but for many of us disability is still a reality. More money needs to be spent for research on this condition. I hope that a future revised edition will take a realistic look at those of us that suffer with Fibromyalgia. No amount of smiling throught the pain or denying what your body is feeling is going to lead to a better life. It will leave us detatched from our feelings and out of touch with our bodies. Without listening to your body, taking good care of your self, conserving your energy and excercising wisely, you cannot find peace with this often life long condition.

This book sends some very bad messages. It does not explain how the course of fibromyalgia can be mild, moderate, or severe. Some people with severe FMS have incapacitating pain. This book implies, that, if you have incapacitating pain, you are 'just giving into it', and 'you need to find better ways of dealing with your pain than laying in bed'. Unfortunately, people who do not have FMS read books like these, and get the wrong messages about people with severe FMS. I would not recommend this book.

I found this book extremely helpful to myself and a 17yr old girl who was recently diagnosed. We applied the charts and routines and really payed attention to the information. Any disease can gain control of you if you let it. I have a history of chronic heart disease and have learned that there is more to controlling a disease and recognizing how is the beginning. For this book to be helpful you must be open minded and really listen to the message and be honest with yourself in order to get control of the disease. But I can guarantee anyone with the disease if you apply this book thoroughly it will make all the difference in the world. My doctor read the book in order to help treat me and that helped even more. We are only in the beginning of understanding this disease so don't expect your family and friends to know or understand it, most doctors don't consider it unless there is nothing else to call it. But it's real and debilitating. Try It!

This book had some very wrong messages in it, the authors are uneducated. (FMS can be mild, moderate, or severe, everyone is not at the same level) Some people have incapacating pain, and this book implied that if you do, "you're just giving into it", or, "you need to find other ways of dealing with your pain besides laying in bed" Unfortunately, people who don't have FMS pick these books up and read them, thus giving a bad message about the ones who have severe fibromyalgia

This is a good book to add to your library on the subject of Fibromyalgia. While I don't entirely agree with all the content and all the view points in this publication, it has a been a valuable resource in helping me cope with my Fibromyalgia. I recommended it to my doctor for other patients with Fibromyalgia.

I really liked this book.. It helped me learn to deal with my pain more than any other book I read on Fibromyalgia.

I'm giving this book the highest rating I can give, much higher than some of the other 5-star recommended books, which were recommended by my doctor or friends/relatives, in other words, 'non-sufferers'.I'm a visual person, with ADHD, & also a hands-on manager of my condition, not a victim. This book is a tremendous asset, especially in terms of the worksheets & exercises, which I use to help me troubleshoot my flare-ups; once I've narrowed down which of my behaviors or hormonal upsets have caused the flare, I find the specific chapter relating to the flare & use the tips in the book to get myself settled down again.Granted, it's not cutting edge technology, but the book was printed in 1997, before a lot of information was known or widely available on FM. Still it's the best resource I've found & the most-referenced in my extensive FM reference collection.

I found this book to be very brief and to the point. They have a lot of tips that can be incorporated into your daily life routines. The testimonials let you know that you are not alone and that just because of this diagnosis of fibromyalgia may slow you down a little, it should not stop you from living a meaningful life. It brought up to speed and provided some clarity on how to get myself back on my feet again!!

This book had some very wrong messages in it, the authors are uneducated. (FMS can be mild, moderate, or severe, everyone is not at the same level) Some people have incapacating pain, and this book implied that if you do, "you're just giving into it", or, "you need to find other ways of dealing with your pain besides laying in bed" Unfortunately, people who don't have FMS pick these books up and read them, thus giving a bad message about the ones who have severe fibromyalgia

Not surprising with the history of the illness in the medical community that
books are being written for public consumption that don't meet the real need for objective, hard science. Most of the early NIH funded research went to psychologists. Not to strange that the results they found were mostly on coping and little on really understanding the physiology of FM. Now that there are clear links to vital neurotransmitters and documented dysfunction in particular areas of the pituitary and hypothalamus the folks who have a real chance of curing and medically treating this illness - neurologiists and endocrinologists - are behind the curve in publications, research money, and proper training in agents that might be effective in reducing symptoms and preventing disability. There is even new information of a possible hormonal link between FM and heart disease.
What is slowing us down is what has been published by guess and by gosh. I'd pay $100.00 for a book that would clearly state "We don't know" instead of making a series of tragically, for the patient, wrong guesses.