Question:
From discussions at support groups and lurking at news groups such as this,
I'm convinced that we have a much higher than "normal" divorce rate. Since
I want to say that in the book I'm working on, I'd like to have more support
than just my own casual observations.
Has anybody come across any statistics on divorce rate about fibromyalgia
patients from a believable source?
Answer:
Obviously you've been around - have you come across any "studies" of FMS
patients that were *not* related to the efficacy of CBT? After all, the
profession doesn't really recognize this as a disease; or not
wholeheartedly, or without equivocation, at least. I mean, what does a
physician *mean* when he/she says "fibromyalgia"?
We can't even get a proper estimate of incidence. CFS is supposed to be
a smaller group (the CDC even admitted that it pitched its criteria to
"shrink" the group down) so we would expect the stats for FMS to be a
*lot* higher. Then when we look at studies like Leonard Jason's we have
to suspect that the numbers of *CFS* victims are *huge*. Then we have
to ask ourselves what that says about FMS incidence. Pretty peculiar for
a disease the medical profession doesn't want to admit is a disease.
The medical profession apparently doesn't think disability is a "medical
matter". They've been getting a rude awakening, and are coming too very
grumpily, since they didn't expect this one to blow up in their faces.
I don't know how we could get statistics on divorce. Furthermore,
though I know that for some reason or other - not that it's any of my
business - you want to say that divorce rates are higher amongst PWFMS
than the general population - how are you going to assemble a
decent-sized FMS group in order to ask them such a question?
I would suggest we should be doing a lot more than asking them such
questions as "have you been divorced? And if so, when?" so that we
could relate that answer to the date of onset of symptoms.
My own opinion is that FMS is a marriage-wrecker; or at the very least,
a very severe test of the marriage bond. However the same could be said
of any illness. Look at the frequency with which husbands abandon their
wives after a dx of breast CA and mastectomy?
It's a fact of life that men can and do depart from women they're sworn
to love, cherish, honour, protect, specifically in sickness and in
health.
Isn't there a news searcher? I could do with one myself. Do you have
to do searches of all the wire services? This is the sort of question
that a news writer would like to report from a journal publication.
