Anyone else deal with central sensitization and have your doctor expect you to completely change your lifestyle?

I have been going to doctors for chronic pain and other issues for well over a decade. The word Fibromyalgia was thrown out in my early 20’s (I will be 34 in October). No one ever really wanted to put it on my chart as to prevent me from getting stigmatized.

A few years ago I went to a more holistic health clinic through one of the big hospitals here. The clinic was talked about very positively, but I got paired with a nurse practitioner who was new to the practice at the time and was not very helpful. I told her about all of my issues and Fibromyalgia and she brought up the term central sensitization. I only had a few sessions with her because, she too stigmatized me at a time where I was seeking answers for symptoms after a concussion. (Turns out I had neuralgia…but that’s a whole other story).

Anyway, I recently started going to a musculoskeletal doctor that looks at everything holistically. She is very nice; is non judgmental and does not stigmatize. She brought up the central sensitization thing again.

The problem is, is that she basically expects me to completely change my lifestyle. She wants me to do qi gong and/or yoga every day. Start an anti inflammatory diet (which I have been slowly working on), go to various other practitioners who also give me exercises and things to do, etc.

It is just A LOT when most days I can barely function enough to get to work. And then by the time I get home I’m exhausted and it’s hard to cook dinner.

Yes, I know there is meal prep and all of that. But I have no idea what to eat half the time as I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis earlier this year and am still learning what foods bother it. I’m also scared to eat a lot of the foods that can be triggers in case they do bother it. And I recently found out that my cholesterol is high, so now I’m even more limited.

But the food is only one (which a big) aspect of it. I’m just struggling to make all of these lifestyle changes while also hold a job which barely pays the bills.

I just feel incredibly overwhelmed. Has anyone else gone through this?