After reading some responses I wanted to add some things. Besides reading about people posting co-occuring syndromes and diseases, I've read article after article of medical documentation of co-occuring syndromes and diseases. Yesterday, I read that people with fibromyalgia are more likely to have osteoarthritis earlier on in life. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that fibromyalgia causes already painful conditions to be that much worse. So it only makes sense that someone with fibromyalgia would seek more treatments for pain that they would be feeling without the fibromyalgia. Any kind of pain that can be controlled is going to become a focus, were as someone without fibromyalgia may choose to live with the pain, for someone with fibromyalgia it is not worth living with.
Am immunologist once described to me how allergies work. Everyone has a cup, you may not notice the cup filling up. Once you reach that limit, the cup overflows. I think pain is the same way. You can endure so much of it, but once it reaches it's over flow point it's not maintianable anymore. Maybe others see it as catastrophizing. Why would a pain number from 6 to 7 be so much worse? For me a 7 is overwhelming. I can't carry a conversation, it interupts my thoughts. My functionality goes out the window. I can go through life with a 1 - 6, some new condition comes up that pushes me over into a 7. I am going to feel like my world is ending, that I may never see the light at the end of the tunnel.