International Fibromyalgia Awareness Day arrives every year on 12 May with statistics, seminars and statements. But patients in Kashmir experience something far more personal. 

They wake up exhausted after a full night in bed, their muscles ache without injury, and their minds struggle through a haze that steals concentration and memory. 

Their medical reports appear normal while their lives slowly shrink.

I meet these patients almost every day.

Women arrive at pain clinics carrying thick folders filled with blood tests, MRIs and prescriptions gathered over many years. Some have visited orthopaedic surgeons, neurologists, rheumatologists and psychiatrists before reaching us. Most tell the same story. 

Many dismissed their suffering as stress, others called them overly emotional. A few suggested the pain existed only in their imagination.

That response has damaged patients as much as the illness itself.

Fibromyalgia remains one of the least understood chronic pain disorders in Kashmir, despite the enormous number of people living with its symptoms. 

Medical science now identifies fibromyalgia as a nociplastic pain disorder, where the nervous system amplifies pain signals far beyond normal levels. 

The brain and spinal cord enter a state of constant hypersensitivity. Everyday sensations begin to feel overwhelming and exhausting.

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Patients live with widespread body pain lasting several months........

© Kashmir Observer