Raising Awareness of Male Fibromyalgia with Imagery.

On Saturday I posted an image to the FibroMen Facebook page which seems to have struck a chord for so many people. It's something I've seen many times before in my online journey with fibromyalgia, images where people depict how they look and the same image 'bastardised' to show how they feel. I've shared these images a number of times in the past with no real, significant, interest. This one seems to have been a little more inspiring to some people.

As I write this, the original post has been seen by over 30,000 people and shared 364 times. Here is the image I posted:

It's a simple stock photo of some male model and it seems to have caused quite a stir, particularly among males with fibromyalgia. Many say it was a bad choice of image as it doesn't depict a 'real' man with fibro, many also stated that people with fibro 'don't work out' and so couldn't possibly look like the image on the left. 

Is that true? There are many layers of fibromyalgia. It affects us all in different ways, and there are some that say that the worst thing for it is inactivity. Indeed there are days when I feel like I could go back to my gym and do a few circuits - it is only the prospect of making the pain worse the next day that puts me off, but who knows, it might, over time, work to ease my pains. (I'm having trouble accepting that!)

Some of the detractors stated that an image showing a real sufferer would have worked better. 

I'm not so sure it would have had as much of an impact as an extremely healthy man being transformed into a pain-riddled wreck  - the difference is clear for all to see: "This is how I appear to the outside world - but if you could see my pain, this is what you would see!" 

I have to point out that the vast majority of males who commented on the image were positive about it - some even mused that they wished they actually looked like the image on the left (don't we all?) - but they got the message, they got the point of the post - do not judge what you cannot see, don't judge a book by it's cover, even fit and strong men are affected by fibromyalgia etc.

One thing I'm certain of is this: The image had exactly the reaction I would have wanted and, in creating a stir, it worked to increase awareness of fibromyalgia in men. It worked to get a discussion going - especially from female sufferers who, in the main, wanted it to be known that men suffer this debilitating illness too. Many stated that they thought their partners had fibro, but hadn't been diagnosed because they just put it down to "over-work" (it's a man thing!)

One should never underestimate the power of an image. Some images have the power to end wars and some have the power to start them, let's hope this image raises even more awareness of fibromyalgia in men. That is, after all, my whole reason for starting FibroMen in the first place!