Have you ever heard this phrase? Seen this image? There is a painting of a pipe and below the painting reads in translation - this is not a pipe
You cannot smoke this pipe, you cannot stuff it with tobacco, it is not a pipe, it is a painting of a pipe, it is the idea the illusion of a pipe.
I like this because it feels like the best description of people with fibromyalgia or any invisible illness. I am not a healthy person, merely an illusion of a healthy person. Everything you think you know. You cannot make me healthy, you cannot make me function as you imagine. Just because you think it, does not make it so.
Sometimes the illusion is so great that even I forget this very basic fact. Sometimes I perpetuate this illusion because it's what I want most, but at the end of the day I still cannot smoke that damn pipe.