I read the fibromyalgia article yesterday, and it gave me a lot to chew on. It made me think of acute intermittent porphyria, in which abdominal pain, which went unexamined/unexplained for years, didn't give any indication of the disease itself until people could pinpoint the disease.

The pain itself could be a disease, or it could be symptomatic of something else-- fibromyalgia sounds like some sort of blanket terminology to explain what we're having a harder time explaining. I'm more likely to believe pain is connected to depression/emotions/other underlying diseases/conditions rather than being a disease itself.

I do think the phrasing makes it sound made-up, which even if it is, it becomes real when people believe it's real. I don't know. I'm no expert!