Can Fibromyalgia be hereditary? This question is argued so much on the internet or with doctors, from my experience and from reading through pages and peoples view. I am on a few Facebook pages made specially for sufferers to join and talk and feel like they're not alone, its easy to feel alone in this if you don't have a good support network. A lot of the members on this page state that their mum, dad, Nan ,sister,brother, children all have Fibromyalgia, yet there is still some medical professionals adamant it is NOT hereditary.
This is my personal story with this argument which gives me an idea that chronic pain had made its way through my family from the 1800's easily.
I am an avid genealogist, family history is my passion and i can sit for hours scrolling through names, records, census's, websites and the family history museum where i have validated a lot of incidents that not many people think about or have access to.
I think a lot...I'm spiritual and i have maybe strange/quirky thoughts and i think way out of the box, more than some people. If i ever go missing i would be found in a nearby cemetery with my little notebook or in the local family history museum underneath a stack of records, trying to piece together and make sense of where i came from, you got me...i'm a nerd!
Genealogy gets exciting, frustrating, upsetting and makes me curiouser and curiouser as a girl once put it :).
What i'm getting at, you learn a lot about your past, much more than just a date of birth.
Sadly i did come across a few suicides and relatives who have become depressed, so bad that they have been carted off to a Mental Asylum because the doctors just didn't know what to do, which could be said for a lot of things in the 1800's to mid 1900's.
I'll start with James ( my 2nd great grand uncle) born in 1875, at the age of 25 he was involved in an accident in a Mining accident and injured his hip and head, this caused him to be out of work for a while whilst he recovered and he moved in with his brother, he eventually returned to work on lighter duties. At the age of 45 he was admitted to a Mental Asylum due to depression after being out of work now again for having chronic pain. He was released after a year and at the age of 47 he committed suicide by drowning himself in a pond on a cold December day, i witness recalled " I saw a full dressed man throw his stick aside and jump into the water" she raised the alarm and men tried to get him out unsuccessfully. 
Next is Thomas, ( my great great grandad). After an injury to his knee during the war at 19 when he was shot, he recovered and continued his service, he got married and had 10 children and 1 adopted. He joined the army again at 40 and was fit for duties. After 5 years he was discharged as he was unfit for duties due to chronic pain, the military records state that they had to call for his wife to travel down and collect him. Then, only 5 years later, he has committed suicide by strangulation, whilst "temporary of unsound mind"
This is what im getting at (finally) I don't have any medical qualifications, i wonder if this is where my chronic pain came from. My Fibromyalgia only showed its ugly face after my second pregnancy in which i had severe Symphesis Pubis Dysfunction, no sooner had my pelvic pain settled, i developed chronic pain through my body, starting with my legs, then eventually i had chronic pain everywhere.
On www.nhs.co.uk it states these potential triggers which may be the cause of Fibromyalgia developing
- An injury or infection
- Giving birth
- Having an operation
- The breakdown of a relationship
- The death of a loved one
Both of these distant relatives had a previous injury then a few years later it was noted that they had crippling chronic pain, Sadly pain management was not as advanced back then as it is today, Imagine this pain searing through your body and not being able to grab some relief, even if its just a bit, they lost their role in the family as the main provider which in its self can cause depression and worthlessness, sadly they succumbed to the pain and felt the only way to rid it and to feel relief was to die, i know its depressing but its happened and i'm so glad i live in this era now where help is at hand!
Again i realise in the 1920's and before, pain relief wasn't as developed as it is today, but i do believe there is a hereditary link and maybe Thomas and James developed Fibromyalgia but it wasn't known, there have been a lot of arguments to if its linked in the family, if i'm honest i think its too soon for them to admit it until generations of medical records as they are now show it.
If you enjoyed this read or would like to add your thoughts on the subject then please comment, or if you have any stories of your own :) x
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