What are some of the problems typically experienced by fibromyalgia patients in everyday life?
The physical problem I most often hear about is that activity hurts. Also, patients are not able to perform physical activities with the same reliability as they once did. They might feel clumsier or start to stumble or drop things more often. They might fall or have problems with fine motor function. These physical impairments are, of course, very distressing to people. There are also cognitive symptoms—symptoms that derive from how people think. People with fibromyalgia find that their assessment and completion of tasks is sometimes impaired. This is commonly known as “fibro fog,” where memory function and processing speed slows down. Some people say that they feel their cognitive processing speed is about 10 to 20 years older than their actual age.
